My MJ is a goof ball. I completely forgot to take any pictures while we were all dressed up and at seminary graduation. I had to beg and plead for these after the fact pictures later that night when we were gathered in my room for scriptures and prayer.
Emma has 1 more year of school left- though we are hoping that it's only 1 semester. When she was in 8th grade we prayed about whether she should start seminary due to her age instead of grade. We talked it over with the stake and they agreed to let her start. It was a really important decision because she really started struggling emotionally in the 7th grade. Switching schools and starting seminary were the keys to her being able to overcome those obstacles.
Emma got called by the high councilman over seminary to give a 10-15 minute talk at graduation. She was so nervous and wasn't sure how to fill that much time. We told her that no one would care and in fact probably thank her if she didn't take up that much time. She has been busy with trying to finish up school for the year and didn't have time to put into writing a talk. Every time I tried to help her she didn't think I was following what she was asked to talk about and just get grumpy. She was thinking that her assigned topic was too difficult and ridged when it was just the opposite. She just couldn't seem to get any inspiration and grumpiness doesn't usually help out with that. Sunday rolled around and she still had no talk. She pulled out her kindle in sacrament meeting to wait for inspiration to write down so she could hopefully turn those thoughts into a talk when we got home. Right after lunch she stormed into our room and declared that the stupid device lost all her notes, life was over, and there would be no talk. I prayed that a nap would calm her down and let inspiration flow. Well, she woke from her nap with little time left to prepare and we again argued about the assigned topic. Luckily Dad was there who is the master pep talk giver, understander, sympathizer, talk writing helper of all time. With his help as mediator I was able to bring to her mind some things she could talk about and then she went off to write her talk. Dad checked on her and helped her organize her thoughts and scriptures and we didn't get to hear it until she was giving it over the pulpit. That was a little nerve wracking for me because I always get to hear the kids talks before they give them. She went out to the back garage (she wanted no one to hear her) while we gathered everyone up to load in the car so she could practice 1 time before we left, then she hopped in the car and away we went.
Here is Emma's rockin talk:
Hi my name is Emma for those of you who don’t know me. I am from the Enchanted hills ward. I am a Junior at Rio Rancho Cyber Academy. I know this is confusing because I am graduating seminary this year but usually the church does things by age not grade so I wanted to start seminary with my friend Eliza and I am hoping to finish school next semester so here I am after having started seminary my eighth grade year, graduating seminary a junior! Because its my Junior year there have been a LOT of tests and essays I have had to do so I decided to write this talk today and to pray about it to receive some sort of revelation on what I should say relavent to the topic throughtout the past week. I had a dream about it and in my dream I walked up to the microphone and said sorry I got nothing, Don’t worry I’m not going to that now.
After that dream which didn’t give me much hope, in sacrament meeting this morning I wrote down a lot scriptures and quotes and even started my talk and got a good bit done but my kindle died while I was writing it. As soon as I turned it on when I got back home I found that all of it was gone. So I crawled in bed and took a nap for a while and while my mom kept coming in my room to check if I had written my talk yet I told her to leave me alone to wallow in my own self pitty. Well I finally wrote my talk at around five so hopefully in the process of writing it I got something in here that you can get a take home message from. [she actually didn't give this paragraph of the talk]
So my specific prompt for this talk is to speak about how seminary has helped me to fulfill any part of the objective and purpose of seminary. Okay so for those of you who don’t know what it is the purpose and objective of seminary is: To help youth and young adults understand and rely on the teachings and Atonement of Jesus Christ, qualify for the blessings of the temple, and prepare themselves, their families, and others for eternal life with their Father in Heaven. I want to start out by sharing some of my favorite scripture mastersies, all scriptures that I will be talking about in my talk are going to be scripture masteries as I figured it was fitting. Okay so one of the scriptures that was my favorite from seminary was in Proverbs chapter 3 verses 5 and 6 which says …
This one has helped me a lot throught out the years. I have always been a really shy person, in fact that is the reason that I am a junior this year because my mom was worried about putting me into kindergarden when I turned five so she didn’t. Because I am very shy sharing the gospel is something that is not the easiest thing for me to do. This year in Seminary my WONDERFULL seminary teachers, my mom and sister mauk, had the class come up with some goals for the year and one of our goals was to have an invite a friend to seminary day. Immediately my mind went to no way no how not gonna happen. All my friends live at least 20 minutes away and when I say all my friends I mean my one and only close friend Emma. But I had only known Emma for like 2 months at this point so there was just no way I was going to invite her. I did not end up inviting my friend Emma to this specific day at seminary, however I have since brought her maybe three times to seminary. She has also participated in family scripture study and prayers which may not seem like such a big deal for some people to have their friends whitness that part of their lives but for me this was a big thing. I had had some conversations about seminary with her and I asked if she would want to have a sleepover at my house and then go to seminary with me and to my surprise she actually said yes! I had to learn to trust in the lord and not think about what I thought the outcome would be but to trust in the Lord. Another scripture that pertains to this is D&C 6:36 look unto me in every thought doubt not fear not. I learned through seminary to overcome my doubts and fears and trust in the Lord or in other words rely on the teachings of and atonement of Jesus Christ which gives me strength. One more scripture I wanted to relate back to this is in ST Matthew 5:14-16 which says
So we don’t need to be worried about hiding the gospel from others and being embarresed by all of the things that we do we need to be an example unto others and help prepare them for eternal life with their father in heaven. One major blessing that I have received through seminary is that I have learned how to identify how I receive personal revelation in my life. Seminary and the scriptures have helped me with this but my mom, has been a major pusher for this and made it one of her goals for seminary to helped everyone learn how they receive personal revelation. One example I have of receiving revelation that I can remember happening is when I was working on family history work with my mom and we decided that we needed to see if we could get permission to do temple work for some of the ancestors from my moms side, who is a convert. Now my grandma is not happy, at ALL, with my mothers decision to join the church so we knew this would be a huge task and my mom asked us all to pray about it for a few days to decide when we needed to call and who needed to make that call. I don’t know If all my siblings took this challenge as seriously as I did but I decided to pray and see what happened. A few days later my mom came into my room to talk to me about it and see what I thought. I told her that I was not sure if I had received revalation but that I thought that she should call my grandpa to talk to him and that I should call my grandma because she might actually listen to me. My mom told me that she thought the same thing and that this actually was revelation because we both came up with the same conclusion. After about an hour on the phone with my grandmother in conversation that was very frustrating and just awkward my grandmother gave us permission to do the work for our ancestors. I know that I received revelation and know that revelation can come to you through thoughts and in your mind and a lot of the time that is how I receive revelation. In d and c 8:2-3 it says
This knowledge has been one of the greatest blessing to me through seminary. One of the final things I want to conclude with is that I know that it is through seminary that I have gained a greater testimony and understanding of the gospel and that it has brought me to want to share this love of the gospel with others. This last scripture that I am gonna share I actually first learned about at EFY last year because it was the theme of EFY and then it was a scripture mastery in seminary this year and it is doctrine and covenants 58:27 and it says
Through seminary and this scripture I have decided through my own free will that I want to serve a mission when I am eligible and turn 19 in a year. I want to be engaged in the gospel and help bring others unto it. I’d like to close by bearing my testimony that....
Above picture is the graduation gifts I gave to Emma and E (Sis M's daughter)
Back story on said gifts:
We arrived at seminary graduation and found out that other teachers had brought gifts for their graduates. Ummmmm, the thought never even crossed my mind. Sad reason? Probably because they were our own kids graduating and no one else from our class. When the girls were telling us about all the stuff other students were getting from their teachers E said, "it's ok, but next year you should probably get your students something because they won't be your kids and they won't understand and then you can't be the best seminary teachers ever." Ouch! haha
I went out to the store first thing monday morning to look for inspiration. I didn't want to give candy or baked goods and I didn't want to give them something useless. Emma just had a birthday and already had lots of balloons and she already had fresh flowers. I was at the dollar store to get a summer gift basket together for a new family that moved in so I wandered around trying to find something fun for my graduates. Of course you can't get any sort of gift without tying it into the gospel some how. So I gave it my best try:
Congratulations on graduating seminary. You are now armed with the sword of truth. Don't treat this weapon lightly and be silly about it. You've got to constantly fuel your testimony with living water by continuing to study your scriptures and the world of living prophets.
Love Sister Ivey and Sister M -AKA the best seminary teachers ever!
When I delivered to E I asked, "So am I back on top? Can I reclaim my title as best seminary teacher ever?" She laughed and said yes. She also said "you got stuff that I will actually use, that's awesome!" My Emma liked the gift as well. Thank goodness for redemption!
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