Good morning brothers and sisters, for those of you who don't know me, my name is Kate. The topic I was asked to speak on today, is the quote from the young women's theme, " As a disciple of Jesus Christ, I strive to become like him. I seek and act upon personal revelation and minister to others in His holy name." I have never really thought about, or pondered, on the words of the young women's theme, and as a result I don't think I have ever really understood it. But as I have been preparing this talk, and thinking more about it, I have really understood it. But as I have bee preparing this talk, and thinking more about it, I have found myself paying more attention to opportunities where I can minister to others, and I have thought more and more about receiving personal revelation, and how to go about this.
While writing this talk, a question that I thought a lot about was, how do you receive personal revelation? I found my answer to this question in Elder Dale G. Redlands October 2022 General Conference talk, entitled, A Framework For Personal Revelation. In his talk, he says that "After baptism, we are given a majestic yet practical gift, the gift of the Holy Ghost." He then goes on to say that when we pray and ask God for help or answers, we will receive our answers through the Holy Ghost. Another quote that answers this question is from Elder Robert D. Hales, saying, "When we want to speak to God, we pray. And when we want Him to speak to us, we search the scriptures." When I was at FSY, every day we would set time for us to do personal scripture study. I found this to be very beneficial for my personal growth and growth of my testimony. It was an interesting experience for me, because almost every day, I felt that the Savior was trying to teach me something very specific. Almost everyday, I read a scripture about the same topic, repentance. I still am not entirely sure why I was supposed to focus on that message, but I know that the Savior was trying to teach me something.
Now, on the topic of ministering. In young women's, we focus a lot about ministering and being mindful of others. We try to bring friends to our mutual nights and we do service projects. I love service activities, because they create such a calm environment to be in, and I love the fact that I am helping other people. The reason we focus so much on ministering is for the simple reason of: we represent Jesus Christ and the Lord. When we minister, we are showing others the pure love of Christ. In my church class and my seminary class, we have asked the question , "what have you done to minister to someone lately?" I've found, that when this question gets asked, nobody really speaks up. I think that our view, or at least the youth's view, of the word ministering is too grand. But really, the definition of ministering, is, "the learning of and attending to the needs of others." In other words, ministering can be any kind act toward another person. Personally, I can say that I have ministered to my friends, by inviting them to church activities. I know that I have been ministered to by my church teachers, by the encouragement and love that they have given me. Ministering doesn't have to be some grand act, and I think we need to recognize that. When we stop thinking that ministering is some big gesture, it suddenly becomes a lot easier to minister to people, and it becomes especially easier to recognize ministering in our daily lives.
I would like to bear my testimony that I know that this church is true, and I know that President Russel M. Nelson is the true prophet of the church, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.