Here's her talk:
December 6th, 2015~ Stake Conference Talk by Rhiannon Cushing
Topic: Feeling Joy, Awe, and Excitement in Living the Gospel
Choose one:
-A tiny part of me cries when they lower the stand.
-Hello everyone!
I’m honored to talk to you all today and I hope everyone can hear me alright.
My topic today is Feeling Joy, Awe, and Excitement in Living the Gospel. First, I decided to simplify and get down to the basics—how do you truly live the Gospel?
The first thought I had was attending church meetings and activities regularly. Going to these bring me a lot of joy (especially when I don’t think it will that day); and my church activities like Mutual bring me joy as well. But living the Gospel is not just attending sacrament meeting and other church activities. True, this is essential and important; but it’s just one step.
I found a talk online from April 1993, from Elder L. Tom Perry, entitled—“Back to Gospel Basics”. He talked about visiting Peru and how all the saints located there were struggling. They started to practice basic teachings of the Gospel at home, and Elder Perry said this about the saints; “The blessings that have come to the Peruvian Saints from practicing these two basic gospel principles, daily prayer and scripture study, have been most remarkable. It soon became evident that faith and testimony were increasing among members of the Church…—daily prayer and scripture study—created a dramatic change and offered increased spirituality and works among the Saints there.”
My simplified version of living the Gospel is going to church meetings but then practicing the principles of the Gospel at home and representing our Savior to the best of our abilities.
The first part of my topic is feeling Joy in living the gospel. I believe this is one of the easiest feelings to have as a member of the church. President Utchdorf, my favorite speaker, gave an address in October of last year, titled, “Living the Gospel Joyful”. Instead of reading the entire talk, I’ll summarize. He explained how the “promised blessings of God to the faithful are glorious and inspiring…” and even though following commandments can be tough, it is all worth it. God is constantly raining down blessings and we only need to remove our umbrellas to receive them.
I’ve had a lot of experiences this year that have given me a lot of joy, and the more I’ve thought about these experiences, most of them have had to do with living the Gospel. This Thanksgiving Break my family and I went up to Utah, and we had the opportunity to do baptisms together in the Bountiful Temple. It was my brother Wade’s first time and my parents were married in Bountiful Temple so the whole thing was even more special than usual. I’m grateful we could do that together.
Then there’s the joy I get from going to Seminary each school morning. It can be quite a sacrifice, I’m not going to lie, but I’ve learned a lot and I’ve had fun with my friends there. It has also helped me tremendously with my personal scripture study. I used to only read my scriptures at church, but now I make it a habit of reading them every night. I’m grateful for Seminary and all my friends there, and for my wonderful teachers I’ve had. You are amazing.
Next is Feeling Awe from living the Gospel. We are all very lucky to have the Gospel in our lives and sometimes I think we forget how special it is and how people went through so many things for us to have it. Jesus Christ, our Savior, sacrificed so much for us. The Atonement was excruciatingly painful, but necessary, and He went through it all just for us, because He loves us. That is awe-inspiring to me.
Then there are the many pioneers who were chased from their homes, who traveled huge distances for their lives and for us. That is also awe-inspiring to me. I had the opportunity to go on our Stake’s pioneer Trek this past summer. I was very nervous but I am so glad I went. Over the space of three days the Kimbler Company traveled over 12 miles (which doesn’t sound like a lot but we were pulling a handcart the whole way haha) My testimony grew, and so did my friendships with my Trek family and others. Trek also deepened my understanding of how hard the trials of the pioneers were. They traveled hundreds of miles, sometimes in the dead of winter, and most lost family and friends along the road as well. I’m thankful for the pioneer’s example, for all the experiences I had on Trek, and for all the people I made those memories with. Trek is something I will never forget.
Last on the list is Feeling Excitement from living the Gospel. I get excitement from going to Mutual activities; they are always a lot of fun. Recently, my MiaMaid class put together some “blessing bags” to hand out to people less fortunate. I ended up giving one to a man in Salt Lake City. I thought it was hilarious because he said something along the lines of, “Oh, I get a lot of these! Thanks!” ☺ He seemed grateful and it was exciting to see his reaction and give service that way.
Another exciting experience I’ve had, fairly recently was working on a missionary Open House for our ward. The youth in my ward put most of it together, with help from our leaders, and it was very successful. There were lots of people there that we taught different principles of the Gospel to, and it was a faith strengthening experience for me.
While writing this talk, I thought about why I’m a Mormon. And it’s that it makes me happy; I know it, I live it, I love it. It can be tough at times, especially with how much the world is deteriorating around us, but it’s so worth it.
For some reason, this past week was just spectacular. Noting huge happened, I think just all of the little everyday things made me happy; I started to recognize all the blessings that God was raining down on me. In particular, I had a really cool experience at my orthodontist appointment. Yeah; out of all the places, my orthodontist appointment. One of the really sweet ladies helping surprised me. She said something along the lines of, “I remember you! You are just free-spirited and you have a good outlook on life.” Of course, I couldn’t really say anything, because she was already working on my braces. I ended up giving her an awkward thumbs-up, which didn’t give the compliment any justice, but that made my week.
Our Savior loves us very much. We make mistakes but we will never be alone because He is with us always. I hope we will all remember what this month is really about and try our best to honor Him.
I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
