Dallin gave his first talk in Sacrament meeting today. As a part of the annual Young Men’s Sacrament Meeting program, Dallin gave a talk about family. He wrote it himself, which just makes it that much more precious to me. He was cute in his delivery of it. He even started out his talk with a joke. One of the young men that spoke before him make a comment about having to have the podium raised up because of his height. When Dallin got up to speak, they lowered the podium so he made a joke about his shortness and needing to have it lowered to the shortest possible setting. It was adorable. He spoke out and made eye contact with the crowd. His 6th grade English teacher would have been proud!
This is what he said:
Hello brothers and sisters. Today I have been asked to give a talk on the family.
First off, the definition of a family is a group of people that are related by blood, marriage, or adoption.
For the strength of youth says that being part of a family is a great blessing. Your family can provide you with companionship and happiness, help you learn correct principles in a loving atmosphere, and help you prepare for eternal life.
We learn in The Family: A Proclamation to the World that happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.”
Faith is the first thing a happy family should have. I know my family has gone through some tough times, but we kept on pushing through. That is one of the things a family of faith should have. Never giving up, and pushing through hard times.
The other thing is that you should have trust in heavenly father and his promises. Although it may seem that he isn’t helping you at times but really he just wants you to learn yourself. He won’t help you every time.
Next is prayer. In my family we pray when we wake up, we pray for lunch, we pray for dinner, we pray before and after any meetings during the day, we pray before bed, and personal prayers after we had family prayer before bed. The reason why we pray so much is because we want to keep in touch with our heavenly father all day long.
When you do something wrong you should repent. Let’s just say that you hit your brother or sister. You should say you’re sorry and try not to do it again. Then you should pray to your heavenly father and say you’re sorry to him to. Then let’s say that brother or sister hit you and say that they are sorry. You should forgive them for their wrongs.
If you respect your family members, less arguments and fights will occur. You should do what your parents tell you to do. As a family you should respect others too.
But best of all, you should love one another. There is even a primary song called “love one another”.
To keep the family strong, you must work. Children should do chores around the house like folding laundry, cleaning rooms, and mowing the lawn. Those were just a few of the things that you could do. Parents should work for money to provide the family with food, clothing, and shelter.
Just like its good to work, it is also good to have fun as a family. My personal favorite family trip was when we went to a spring and went hiking, swimming, and afterwards a family picnic.
I’d like to end this talk with my testimony, I believe that this church is true, I believe that families can be together forever through heavenly fathers plan. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
. But most importantly turning 12 means that Dallin is old enough to receive the priesthood. He was interviewed by the Bishop and found worthy to be ordained to the office of Deacon in the Aaronic priesthood. 