Rachel's first talk in church

Rachel got a phone call on Friday night from a member of the Bishopric.  Would she be willing to give a talk on Sunday, 3-4 minutes, topic: The Gift of the Holy Ghost?  She said that a lot of things went through her mind in just a few seconds.  At first she thought "I'm going to the BYU football  game tomorrow so I better say no" and then just as quickly she thought "No, I think I can do this, I have time tonight and tomorrow morning".  She said yes.  She got to work right away.  She asked me to listen to a couple of scriptures and I agreed they seemed to be perfect for her message.  When she finished she read it to me and that's all the help she asked of me. 

 I have to watch myself with her when she works on creative writing for school or projects like this talk for example because she doesn't use the same words I would use and I find myself about to tell her to use different phrasing  or different words when I realize she's not wrong, she just thinks differently than I do.  I don't want to change her originality, her unique way of looking at things.  That's one of the things I love best about being her mom, that she is so different from me.  Below is her talk as she wrote it.  She did a superb job today.  She looked confident and happy.  She smiled.  She rarely looked down at her paper but out at the congregation.  She was happy to be there & it showed.  (These pictures are not from today of course but are of her modeling some of her new school clothes.)

The Gift Of the Holy Ghost

Good morning! I’m Rachel Bocanegra. And I am really excited and glad that Brother Bennet has given me the opportunity to talk to you guys about the gift of the holy ghost. To start off I am going to read a scripture from D&C 33:15:

"  And whoso having faith you shall aconfirm in my church, by the laying on of the bhands, and I will bestow the gift of the Holy Ghost upon them."

 I really enjoy this scripture because it explains the process of receiving the holy ghost. I remember when i first received the Holy Ghost because of the deep feeling that had overcame me After my dad had finished saying the prayer so I could receive the holy ghost, and after I said amen and i opened my eyes, immediately i felt the spirit. It was so incredibly strong that I knew I had received gift of the holy ghost. I even felt a strong “whoosh” of something like a spirit come into my body. And I don’t know if I imagined it, but it felt really amazingly real. And that was almost more amazing than the whole baptism experience that had happened a couple minutes before. That experience has been one of the best experiences i’ve ever had, so I’d just thought i’d share that.

My next scripture is D&C 20:26-27: 

"26 Not only those who believed after he came in the ameridian of time, in the bflesh, but all those from the beginning, even as many as were before he came, who believed in the words of the holy prophets, who cspake as they were inspired by the dgift of the Holy Ghost, who truly etestified of him in all things, should have eternal life,

  27 As well as those who should come after, who should believe in the agifts and callings of God by the Holy Ghost, which bbeareth record of the Father and of the Son"

This scripture I also really like because this explains that without the Holy Ghost it would be hard to transfer Heavenly Father’s message to our prophet. It also helps gift of the holy ghost transfer that message to our prophet to us, and helps us feel the truth in our prophet’s words. the gift of the holy ghost can also transfer Heavenly father’s answers to our prayers. The Holy Ghost is kind of like H.F.’s messenger from his words to the feelings in our hearts. And that, at least i think, is an amazing way to transfer messages from such a far distance apart. 

An experience that i have had a couple years back is when I had gotten three hermit crabs for my birthday. a couple months later i was playing with them in my room with my friends. Then we had left them with their cage open sideways thinking we would be back in a minute. But we forgot, and found that they were gone. we looked for a while and was able to find two, but the last i could not find. I was so worried and scared about him. After i had looked for about and hour, i prayed to H.F. for help to find him. I looked some more for about half an hour, but this time with some faith. I then had a very deep feeling that because he was the smallest, he could of crawled underneath the desk and hid in the corner. We pulled it out and there he was in the corner. I was so happy. I knew Heavenly Father helped. I knew he helped through the Holy Ghost. And that’s another experience on the gift of the holy ghost that i’ve had.

I know the Holy Ghost is a very precious gift that we are able to receive. I think we need to be very grateful for our own personal holy Ghost. And i would just like to bear my testimony that i know that the gift of the holy ghost can transfer heavenly father’s helpful advice to us through our every day challenges, and that the holy ghost is the best gift we can ever receive, but it will only be useful if we use it. And I am really truly grateful for the gift of the Holy ghost, and I say these things in the name of thy son jesus christ amen.