Grayson’s Baptism

Monday, April 15, 2024

On Monday, April 8th, Grayson was baptized. It was a great baptism; Paul Quinn gave a talk on baptism, and I gave a talk on the Holy Ghost. As usual, I wrote out my talk but even though I have the notes in my hand, I try to not refer to them. In this case I only looked at my notes two or three times, mostly so I don’t miss anything I wanted to say.

Paul was late getting there so we got started a bit late so Ally took Grayson and Finn and explained more about what would be going on. It was fun to watch her up with the boys at the font.

Paul talked so long that I was worried about the meeting going long so I ended up cutting out half of the examples I had but I still think I got the point across, and I think it went fine. Here is a copy of the talk I prepared.

Hello Grayson, thank you for letting me share a few thoughts about the Holy Ghost with you on your baptism day.

Today you will receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, but I know you have felt the Holy Ghost many times before today. Everyone who is worthy can feel the Holy Ghost sometimes, otherwise no one would be converted, because it is the Holy Ghost that helps us develop a testimony.

The difference is that before, the Lord would send you the Holy Ghost when he needed to help you, but now, if you are worthy, the Holy Ghost can be with you always.

So, what exactly does the Holy Ghost do? Well, he does a lot more than you probably ever imagined. Let me read off a list of some of the things the Holy Ghost can do for you.

1) He tells you when something is true.
2) He can help you learn.
3) He can warn you when you are in danger.
4) He can help you remember things that you learned before, but forgot.
5) He can reveal thoughts and ideas to you.
6) He can comfort you and bring peace to your soul.

There are probably more things that he does, but I don’t want to take too much time. Let me give you a few examples of some of the ways that the Holy Ghost has helped me.

1) He tells you when something is true.

This is probably the most common thing that the Holy Ghost will do for you. When you hear something that is true, the Holy Ghost will give you a wonderful feeling inside your heart that lets you know that what you heard is true. I remember when President Nelson was called to be a prophet.

I didn’t need to ask or pray about it, as soon as they announced in conference, I knew that this was the way Heavenly Father wanted it to be. I knew that President Nelson was supposed to be the new prophet.

The same thing has happened when I have received a calling in church. The spirit often tells me that this is what Heavenly Father wants me to do.

He will do the same thing for you too.

2) He can help you learn.

You are now old enough that you are going to learn some really cool stuff at school. I love to learn, but sometimes, if I am having a hard time understanding something that I am reading, or that I am being taught, I will pray about it and Heavenly Father will send me the Holy Ghost and he helps me to understand it. Sometimes it happens right away but other times I need to study the matter for a while before I understand it but almost always the Holy Ghost will help me to learn what it is I need to know.

3) He can warn you when you are in danger.

I love to do new things and I often take chances that I shouldn’t do. Sometimes they might be a bit dangerous but I kind of like to do dangerous things. There have been a few times that I was about to do something that I thought would be fun but then I got a bad feeling about what I was about to do and I knew that the Holy Ghost was telling me that I shouldn’t do that. One time when I was a teenager, my brother and I climbed a very high mountain. There was still a lot of snow on the mountain so when we were coming down, we decided it would be a lot faster (and fun) to slide down the glaciers. This was a lot of fun but then we came to one glacier, and I got a bad feeling telling me not to do it. I listened and decided to walk around the glacier and when we got to the bottom of the glacier, I saw that it ended on a cliff. If I had slid down that glacier it is possible that I would have slid right off the edge of the cliff.

4) He can help you remember things that you learned before but forgot.
I like to read a lot and I study the scriptures just about every day. If you asked me what I studied yesterday I would probably not be able to tell you because I also forget things fast. but there have been many times when I am preparing a talk or even when I am working on a project for work that I will remember something that I read before that will be helpful for the talk I am preparing or the project I am working on. That is the Holy Ghost helping me to do my work. This happens all the time and it will also happen for you. This is especially important while you are in school as you are writing tests.

5) He can reveal thoughts and ideas to you.

If Heavenly Father wants to reveal something to you, he can do that in many different ways. He can give you a vision, he can send you an angel, he can give you a dream and sometimes you will hear a voice. Those are all very cool revelations and I have received almost all of them, but they are rare. Almost always, Heavenly Father will send the Holy Ghost to enlighten your mind. That means that he will put the thought in your mind that he wants you to know.

This happens to me all the time in my work. I will be trying to solve a difficult problem and as I am thinking about the problem, I will sometimes see the problem in my mind, and I can also see clearly how to solve the problem.

6) He can comfort you and bring peace to your soul.

Everybody has problems in their lives. It is part of why we are here on earth. If we didn’t have problems, then we couldn’t learn anything because it is by overcoming problems that we learn how to do things. Sometimes though, these problems can become scary and all we can do is worry about the problems. It can ruin our sleep, it can make us lose our appetite and it can make us quite grouchy. Heavenly Father wants us to struggle to overcome problems, but he doesn’t want us to be miserable all the time. When I get really worried about something I will say a prayer and I will ask Heavenly Father to help me have peace in my heart and he does just that. If there is something we need to be doing to solve our problems then the Holy Ghost will help us do that. If there is nothing we can do about our problems then the Holy Ghost will comfort us and take away some of the pain and unhappiness. It was a long time ago but I remember when my mother died and I was really sad. I knew that she couldn’t come back but the Holy Ghost helped me to not be so sad.

The Holy Ghost has many names, but my favorite name for the Holy Ghost is “The Comforter”. When I am sad and I pray for the Holy Ghost to comfort me it is almost like wrapping up in a warm blanket.

Do you recognize this? This blanket used to be your dad’s blanket. I remember when he used to sleep with it every night. I know Grandma gave you this blanket and now you sleep with it every night. The next time you are sad or upset I want you wrap this blanket around yourself and remember the Comforter. If you say a prayer to your Heavenly Father, he will send you the Holy Ghost to make you feel better.

What you need to always remember though, is that if you are doing things that you shouldn’t do, then the Holy Ghost can’t visit you. He won’t be with you if you are doing bad things or thinking bad or angry thoughts. If you can think good thoughts and keep the commandments, however, there is nothing that you can’t do if you have the Holy Ghost with you.

Everyone in the family knows just how Kira is not a fan of the Sunshine Hymns sung at church. The two that come to mind are, “There is Sunshine in Your Soul” and “Scatter Sunshine”. Serene played the piano and they asked Kira to lead the music. They didn’t tell her that one of the songs was “Scatter Sunshine”. Kira was not happy, but she was a good sport.

Brandon loves to reenact as many paintings and statues as he can.

While we were there Kira pulled up a picture from the last time they got their families together. We decided to get an updated picture of the two families. They have grown.

For those who may need a reminder of who these kids all are, left to right (oldest to youngest):

Griffin, Evan, Sydney, Landon, Haley, Cooper, Rosalie, Cameron (with a little encouragement from his dad), Mackenzie, Piper, Grayson, Fin

--------------------trivia--------------------

2,000 year old seeds were found in an ancient jar in Israel. 

The seeds were planted and grown into trees that had been extinct for 1,800 years. 

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