Zoë's first primary talk in Doha

Zoë was asked to give a talk this past Friday. She wrote a first draft all on her own but grew frustrated when she felt that she hadn't covered anything very well (though she had covered many things and still felt like she had more things to cover). Honestly, the topic "God promised to send Jesus Christ to be my Savior" is rather expansive and open-ended, so we read through her talk and I helped her identify some threads she could pull at. She spent quite a lot of time rewriting her talk and then spent even more time rehearsing her talk to an audience of stuffed animals (and then delivered the talk to us during our evening scripture study) before finally feeling like she was ready. 

Here she is standing in front of the primary room delivering her talk:

And here is what she prepared:

Jesus Christ came to earth to be my Saviour because he loves me. He went to Gethsemane to atone for my sins. He carried the burdens of the world on his shoulders so that I would not have to bear as much and I am grateful that he is willing to do that for me.

Matthew 11:29 says: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls." 

This means that if we trust in Jesus, and learn from Him, He will help bear our burdens—not necessarily physical burdens, like having to make your bed or do the dishes or take out the trash, but spiritual burdens, or mental burdens like guilt and sorrow and anger.

When we feel discouraged, we can turn to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ for help. We can pray to them to help us calm down, and to handle life’s challenges. 

Jesus helped create the world that we live in and cares deeply about it. 

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus asked his listeners to “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?” And In Matthew 10, Jesus mentions that he cares about sparrows but that each of us “are of more value than many sparrows.” This made me think of the song, “His eye is on the sparrow,” which tells us that we should be happy because Jesus is our constant friend and is watching over us, as he does the sparrows.

If he cares so much about the lilies of the field, and the grains of sand in the desert, and all the little sparrows, and creatures that roam about the world, surely he loves and cares about us and is watching over us, too. He cares about every little detail in every little thing, because he created those things—and this includes us!

I’m grateful that Christ is willing to help lift my burdens and bring rest unto my soul, but I think that taking his yoke upon us also means that we have work to do. To take Jesus’ yoke upon us, we need to be willing to do what he does, meaning we need to mourn with those that mourn, comfort those that stand in need of comfort and bear one another’s burdens that they may be light. These are our baptismal covenants, that we promise to keep when we are baptized.  

When Mary and Martha came to Jesus, crying for their brother, Lazarus, who died just 4 days before, Jesus wept with them. He mourned with the two sisters, because they needed to be mourned with. Even though he knew that he would go and raise Lazarus from the dead, he took the time to comfort Mary and Martha, because he cared about them. 

Now, we do not need to raise anybody from the dead, and probably wouldn’t be able to if we tried, but we do need to keep our baptismal covenants to mourn with those that mourn. That is how we take his yoke upon us.

I bear my testimony that as we take upon the yoke of Christ—and as we keep our baptismal covenants by mourning with those who mourn—our burdens will feel lighter and we will find joy.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.