Rachel and Spencer: my little speakers

Rachel and Spencer gave talks last Sunday. Both of them wrote their own talks with very little help from me aside from scribe/typist duties. It's wonderful to see my children take a topic and think of stories and scriptures that apply to it. Giving talks at such a young age really helps children to become comfortable public speakers and will benefit them enormously in their future lives. Just for fun, I thought I'd blog them as part of our family history:

Rachel's talk:

Hello. Today my talk is on praying to Heavenly Father and knowing that he hears and answers your prayers. Heavenly Father will always listen when we call upon him. He has asked us to pray always. When Jesus came to visit the Nephites, he told them to “watch and pray always.”

Now I’ll read Jesus’ words in 3rd Nephi 18:19-20:

19 Therefore ye must always pray unto the Father in my name;

20 And whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you.

This year I started middle school. That means that I have a locker and have passing classes with 10 periods a day. At the very beginning of the year, I was very stressed out because I couldn’t get my locker open which meant that sometimes I was a little bit late for my classes. Luckily, since it was the first few days of school, the teachers were understanding because everyone was having problems with the lockers. I was always really worried because I didn’t want to go to detention for being late. So one night, I decided to say a prayer asking for help to be able to get my locker opened easily. The next day when I went to school, I got my locker open on my first try. I even helped another person get theirs open. From that, I learned that Heavenly Father really does always listen to our prayers. I might not get my locker open on my first try every time but I get it open and that’s the important part because I’m not late for classes and I’m not as stressed anymore.

By this story, I hope you have learned that when you pray, Heavenly Father really does hear you and that you will pray more often with your problems. I have a testimony that I know Heavenly Father will answer your prayers when you pray to him. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Spencer's talk:

Heavenly Father loves us and wants us to pray to him in faith. In 2nd Nephi 32:9, it says: "I say unto you that ye must pray always." If we pray, Heavenly Father will hear and answer our prayers.

The Stripling Warriors learned to pray from their mothers and when they were in battle, they prayed that they would be safe and Heavenly Father answered their prayers.

I have had many of my prayers answered. This summer, my dad and me went fishing. When we were going back to the camp, we had a flat tire. It was night time and I felt scared. But then I said a prayer that we would get help. After the prayer, someone stopped and helped. He was able to patch our tire, put air in it and it was fixed. He even followed us all the way up the dirt road to our camp to make sure we were safe and wouldn't take any money.

I know Heavenly Father hears and answers my prayers. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.