Talk originally given at Seminary Graduation, Sunday 26 January 2025
Good evening,
I want to start this off by saying a massive thank you to my seminary teachers, for all their dedication and efforts and all the youth I had the honour of doing seminary with. You are all a good bunch and good luck for the rest of the years of seminary. I’m so grateful for you all as you’ve all inspired me one way or the other and if I had to think back to when I started I wouldn’t have thought it would have benefited me this much but it certainly has and I’m beyond proud to say I’ve completed the 4 years. It’s truly been wonderful, filled with so many fun times and laughter and very spiritual experiences in seminary and outside of seminary.
The first year of seminary was literally a rollercoaster as I had a lot of nerves and challenges as this was a very new thing for me as for everyone else who was starting, and all the updates that were confusing. On the first year I would say I had a desire to know more but I felt more disconnected. I didn’t read my scriptures as much and I didn’t feel as connected with God, so seminary for the first year or two was more of me listening but doing my own thing, which helped me realise seminary is a process of learning. It felt a lot like school but not at the same time, I focused and tried my best to understand, some things I couldn’t quite comprehend and needed to study on it more but soon enough I was more confident and started to really build my testimony.
Me and my best friend Casey ( my cousin) would play hangman and write down updates about our lives. For example we would write down little notes saying its my birthday in 1 month ( we were really excited for any event we would write it down) or when I wasn’t there this one time, she wrote in my book saying how much she missed me, it was little things like that, that made me smile and laugh, some lessons all you would hear is either of us laughing or playing hangman.
I didn’t realise then but I do now, we were creating memories which in a weird way helped me build my confidence and my nerves went away, even though I may not have been taking it in as much as I did now. I had the confidence to ask questions as I got older and I began to see myself interacting more. In these years I remember us talking about our loved ones that have passed away and this healed me and I remember thinking that God does heal us, it may take time, days, months even years or more but in time through His grace and love He is there and He won’t let us fall.
Seminary after that really did become a guidance for me, it brought me closer to the Saviour, reminding me why I was doing seminary in the first place. I knew this is where I was meant to be and I knew that God wanted me here to share the gospel with the youth and help inspire my seminary teachers and family. I found opportunities to share my faith and the gospel with people from college, the girls I met when I went to Disney also made me feel included and welcomed as I shared my faith with them too.
Throughout seminary and FSY, my experience inspired me to post my faith and scriptures that I loved whilst studying seminary and people in my class mentioned how they loved it and I was very grateful I could inspire them. I started to share about the Jesus Christ and heavenly father and my faith after FSY 2022, so learning seminary and going to FSY really helped me a lot and I didn’t realise until people started having the courage of saying that it was an answered prayer, and it made them inspired and that I was a role model to them that I felt like this is my life, my purpose it wasn’t just sitting in a classroom with some likeminded people talking about the scriptures or doodling and playing hangman, it was the process of building a relationship with God.
I have learnt so much over seminary obviously about the scriptures but I also learnt about so much more. For example I learnt about who I am, my purpose, I learnt how to love others like Jesus and Heavenly Father does. I could go on and on but for those doing seminary I really do advise you to get in the habit of writing notes and impressions you receive so you don’t forget all the things you’ve learnt and cherish it.
There were many videos that were shared, that made me feel emotional but in a good way as it was teaching me something or something I knew I needed to work on. I felt inspired when recently we did this activity where we write something we love about the youth in our class and it reminded me to always be looking for the good in people because that is what God does.
Why did I do seminary? My reasons for doing seminary changed as I went on. My first year I would say the reason was because everyone else was so I thought why not? As time went on I was learning discipline and being committed to doing my lessons and going online every Monday to Friday and Wednesday being my day off and doing the lesson in the evening . My reasons changed as my testimony grew through all the experiences I had, I wasn’t there because everyone else was but because I had that desire to build a relationship with God and follow through it with faith and find my purpose in life and to be an example to others.
Seminary was meaningful because it helped me connect with the youth more. I’d say I’m a shy, quiet girl that just gets on with it but not only seminary but FSY and college helped me to understand the importance of asking for help and support. As I was shy I used that as my way of just doing everything by myself but you can’t do it all on your own, you need people, this is something I’m still grasping on but I know it’s important. Through my years of seminary I achieved confidence, bravery to share my faith, a desire to serve a mission in the future , to get my patriarchal blessing, share thoughts and ideas, relate to the others experiences and more. Seminary has changed my life in many good amazing ways, there’s a scripture I’d love to share with you all and it’s Doctrine and Covenants 121: 7-9
“My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; and then if thou endure it well God shall exalt thee on high ; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes. Thy friends do stand by thee and they shall hail again with warm hearts and friendly hands.”
The truths and principles from this scripture are that, when we call upon the Lord during times of adversity and affliction , we can receive his peace. If we endure trials well in mortality, God will bless us now and in the eternities. In times of trials we can find comfort in the support of our friends.
I wrote in my notebook something I’d like you to ponder on, think of it as a letter to a friend or to yourself.
Sometimes you feel the Lord has abandoned you but hold on to your faith and you’ll realise He only wants the best for you and loves you so very much. Keep close to the friends who warm your heart and support you through these times.
These truths will most definitely help you find comfort in your life by making new friends or the friends you have now that will make you happy. I can very much relate to this especially after going through a very challenging time in my life, struggling mentally. I saw the importance of friends I saw the love they gave, the light they shared, through the dark times, doubt not and fear not because the Lord is on your side.
What made seminary fun? The people is what made it fun , as you build connections with people you learn more about them and how much you actually have in common with them. In my seminary class I had my sister and cousins and for some time my brother. Although they are my family and I’m already close with them, I felt closer because we shared our thoughts and I felt very grateful that we do have similar challenges but I also realised how many differences we had which isn’t a bad thing at all it made us all unique and important in Heavenly Father’s plan and helped me relate to them more. Same goes to the others in my class- They all had their differences and hobbies and talents that made seminary a good place to be.
In the last year of seminary I switched over from online to the zoom call at 6:30am in the morning, as I did this many people questioned it, I even questioned myself and I thought to myself there’s no way you are getting up at that time as you struggle with mornings. Now I will tell you it was a struggle but I knew it would be as I already struggled to get up at 8am let alone 6:30am but on the other side I wanted to get more out of it as the online questions and the way I did before, I would rush the questions and not take my time. I switched over which I’m grateful for because I wrote notes on it, learnt more and more from different people and had so much fun with Kahoot!. I think everything can be a struggle in some way but I wanted to try something different, I did it for me so that my morning routine could be improved and be more disciplined which it did. Now I feel the need to keep up the commitment of getting up early as I saw how my mornings were a lot calm and slow as I didn’t need to rush.
One experience I had I would say was a small miracle but was so meaningful. I’ve felt inspired to share this after praying for inspiration. So I received my patriarchal blessing on September 22nd. On the 2nd of October I was uplifted and felt so much joy, this miracle felt so important as I was waiting for my patriarchal blessing to arrive in the post and was waiting these 3 days were building up miracle on miracle. I had a really strong feeling the 3rd of October was the day it would arrive and it did. On the 1st of October I was at Institute and after there was a beautiful sunset which is on my Instagram of course. I went home just really good because the sunset was so amazing. I went home and whilst I was posting on Instagram I looked at it closer and the middle of the sunset looked like an anchor, as I realised this I remember just being in awe and at peace knowing that God loves me and everyone and he will help us. At FSY my company scripture was Ether 12:4 and had the phrase “maketh an anchor to the souls of men” – which is the first scripture to come to mind when I saw the anchor in the sunset. Another time I kept seeing quotes in the street that said God is like an anchor, He loves you. And on cars and songs. The only thing I could think of was that my patriarchal blessing was going to arrive that day. I shared this with the sister missionaries and my Mum at the time and it amazed them too. I just was so grateful for this and it amazed me so much.
I want to end this talk by sharing my testimony that Jesus is the way the truth and the life and that through Jesus Christ we can learn that God will only ever use us for our good, I know he doesn’t leave us in discomfort but helps provide a way out and give us hope. The gospel has brought so much peace to my life and so much hope. Seminary can help us grow our testimony, our confidence, public speaking, our love for others and God, our discipline and ability to understand the scriptures . I know there is hope in repentance and being forgiven. I testify there is peace through God and Jesus Christ and He will in His time carry us out of trials and give us the guidance we need. He is our healer, our comforter, our redeemer, He is the good shepherd. I love the Saviour, He’s the best thing that has happened to me, He’s shown me his love in many ways and has provided me a way to become the best version of myself. “Don’t let the world change you, when you were born to change the world” is a quote from conference that was shared quite often and was a good reminder for me.
Thank you for listening to my talk and I say this humbly in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen