Emily's first Sacrament Meeting Talk

On May 17th, Emily gave her first Sacrament Meeting Talk. We were lucky that Doug, Theresa, and their family were there to hear it! She chose to speak on Honesty. As this is our 'Family Journal' of sorts, I thought I'd include it in here. She wrote it entirely by herself and I was very proud of her especially as she looked up and even smiled! :) (If you know Emily, you know that was a huge feat!)


Hi, I'm Emily Oliver an I chose to give my talk on Honesty. In life, honesty is one of the most important things ever. If we remain honest, we will not only be much more happier, we will return to live with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.
In the 'For the Strength of Youth Pamphlet', it says that if you are honest, you will be blessed with peace of mind and self-respect.

In Alma 27:27 it states that "And they were among the people of Nephi, and also numbered among the poeple who were of the church of God. And they were also distinguished for their zeal towards God, and also towards men; for they were perfectly honest and upright in all things; and they were firm in the faith of Christ, even unto the end."

One way honesty helps me is at school or at a friends' house. Recently, at my friends house, we were listening to her ipod. After finishing a song, it went to another. As my friend heard the tune, she quickly turned it to another good song. She said to me that that song wasn't very good. Because I had been honest with her about my beliefs, I didn't have to listen to a bad song.

As we go about our daily lives, we never realize the little things that require honesty. Say you bought something at the mall and the cashier accidently gave you too much change. Would you go back and give him the extra change or would you keep it and think it's no big deal? Even things like that require honesty. When yo are dishonest, you damage your spirit and it is really easy to do it again and again.

I would like to bear my testimony about honesty and how I know that if we are honest, we can be much happier people.