Hi I'm Justin, I've come here today to share a message. The bishop asked me to
share about the Holy Ghost. Webster's dictionary defines holy as blahblah.
Okay so if you've been to a Mormon church you might have heard that exact beginning to
a talk and that's fine because that's-- it's not like there's a wrong or right
way per se to give a talk in the Mormon Church. I know the Church is true, I know
wait, wait, wait, wait. Can you be the dad whispering into my ear. Oh yeah, even
better. *whispers* I know the church is true - I know the church is true.
We'd like to give some tips, this is
very much our opinion, on what a good talk- like how to write a talk and how to
make it, you know, powerful but we just like to share some thoughts. Yes.
First things first: Make sure you start some Led Zeppelin music. You gotta play
in the radio and blast it from the pulpit. Your bishop is just like *jaw drop*.
So first up, usually and
when you're assigned to talk, whether you're a new member to the church, you've
been a member for a long time, a member of the bishopric comes to you and asks
if you're willing and they'll give you a topic and sometimes the topic is you
pick the topic. I feel like every YSA ward--
Yeah, that's like all the provo wards but there's, but sometimes like I've been
given talks about, I don't know, like I've had to give talks about the Holy Ghost like
I said or I don't know the Book of Mormon, prayer, or my mission, you know,
it's a huge thing, you know, people come home for their missions and give talks
but that's always the first step and you you could say no. If you're just like
genuinely afraid to death of talking in front of people, you don't have to give
the talk but it's such a wonderful opportunity to share your testimony and
to grow and to put yourself out there and you get out of your comfort zone.
Yeah. So here's what I do, how I give a talk and one-- wait, wait first let's talk
about what if you're nervous actually. Yes, so you might be thinking, "Well, I'm
not like you guys, I'm not, I don't want to go be in front of a
camera people, I'm nervous, we're crazy." Here are some theatre tips to give
people. I like that. Theatre! Theatre, theatre, what has
happened to the theater. High school theater kids. So. Here are some of my theater tips.
I played Warner Hunting the third in Legally Blonde. I actually didn't, I
did not. You're just so good at that, it's impressive. But so here's one tip: don't be nervous. The audience is
not or the congregation, the ward, is not sitting down like, "Time to impress me!"
They're not doing that, they're not looking back hoping you fail. They're not being
critical. Let's be honest, most are trying to keep their eyes open. You don't have to worry about
people judging you. I feel like when you go into any new organization, people are
always, you always assume people are judging you, no one is, no one's judging
you, it's just in your head. In fact, if you go and you get a very mediocre,
boring talk, people are still gonna be like, "Thank you." I was gonna say, I
guarantee people will come up and be grateful because it always touches one
person, right? And so don't, don't, don't feel like people are judging
you but also keep your mind fully in the talk. Don't, sometimes you do this thing
where like half your mind's in the audience, like almost thinking about
watching you while the other half is in a talk and then you're like, "I'm kind of nervous."
I totally do that. I hate that. Like if I were, if I notice that people
aren't like-- I'll like look around and if people aren't looking at me while I'm
talking, I like get super anxious and I like forget what I'm gonna say and stuff
and that's not what it's about, you know? Also, sorry David-- I was just gonna
say, for me the worst part is, I mean I do a substantial amount of public speaking
compared to the average Joe but I still get extremely nervous and for me if I
can get through the sitting and waiting period before-- that's the worst! If you can
just get to the pulpit and start
speaking words, it usually gets better. After that point, the worst part is just
waiting and wondering if you're gonna be able to finish your
talk in time to get to the bathroom. Right. So a good talk
starts with preparation. I've seen people go up and just kind
of wing it and you just, you just kind of know. How long are talks? Like what, ten
minutes? Yeah, 7-10. So yeah when you prepare, you should just, you know, look at
scriptures, conference talks-- so don't copy someone
else's talk either. If you want to like quote and reference, but if a guy gave a
talk a week before and you go and do the exact same talk, that is
gonna be weird. And don't just read a conference talk word-for-word.
Don't just be like, "So Bednar said..."
But there are great, great-- I think you always want to, you
always want go to the words of prophets in the scriptures and take quotes from them.
Yeah. Ideas are great. Even if it's like, even if you're "plagiarizing" like
you don't tell like which like, this apostle said this and this apostle said this--
if you just kind of say ideas that apostles have said, no one's
gonna come up there and sue you. Yeah, there's no there, there are no
Copyright Office people in your ward. The Bishop's like pressing this red button. "Let's see if
you got a license to quote Marion G. Romney." It didn't happen.
You don't have to turn in any citation pages, right, it doesn't have to be in AP style. Your bishop's gonna be
like, "Was your talk in MLA format or Chicago? Also, remember the Holy Spirit. So the
spirit ultimately-- the best part about preparing is praying so the Spirit can be with you
to know what to write so the spirit will be speaking through you.
There will be parts of your talk maybe you don't want to say a certain thing, maybe
you want to say something else, sometimes that just the spirit saying all right,
do this, do this. Yeah and always remember who it's about. The talk isn't
about you, it's about the message, right? So when you remember that it's not
about you, I think it also helps like relieve some of that nervousness because
your crush might be there--
dude, that totally happened to me once. I haven't given a talk in my ward in such a long time!
Go ask. You can also ask to give a talk and do your bishop would be like, "Ah,
thank you, yes." He'll also be a little bit suspicious because that's not a normal thing.
You go and ask your Bishop to speak? I did I think it did once
because I was new in the ward and I was trying to meet people. Okay that's a
good, that's really good idea if you're new, that is the more when McChrystal give a
talk I think the most important thing is that I mean you can have absolutely zero
speaking and writing skills but if you go up and you're trying and you've
prepared with the spirit as best you know how and your heartfelt about it
that spirit is gonna carry over into the congregation and someone's gonna get
something from it i and i i'd like i kinda want to share just a simple
formula and it's not like a right or wrong way but i'm like if you're just
like have no idea what to do this is kind of helps this is like how i start
all my talks but i did i always have at least one quote from a prophet or a
possible at least one scripture that relates to the to the idea one personal
story usually I start with a personal story because people like kind of yeah
they kind of like oh like if it's funny even better but I remember one talk you
gave about the Lord of the Rings okay I reference pop culture a lot at the
beginning might talk to because if you come up and you just like I'll come up
and I'll just be like so in Lord of the Rings Sam and Frodo and people are just
like well I can just kind of draws them in it doesn't have to be that the wrong
with it I love that because it's just something that out of the ordinary that
catches our attention and then you tie whatever your personal story or
pop-culture reference whatever to the topic you know to the spirit and then
you use the scripture and the quote to kind of help people understand they top
it better and then you just finished with your testimony you know just like
what you've learned and what you know to be true or would you believe in and you
know in the name of Jesus Christ amen yeah that's like a five-minute talk
that's really simple that's a great point though like you're basically just
when the bishop gives you your topic you're probably gonna think what do I
have to tell these people about this topic but that's normal like and I think
that's probably on purpose because you go and you learn about that topic and
essentially all you're doing is relaying what you learned you grow a lot as you
prepare for and give a talk that's why you hear people say
when the bishop gave me this topic I was nervous but throughout the week as I
studied it I've come to realize that it was more for me
Bishop texted me and say can even talk I'd like wasn't prepared so here it goes
I've friends who play this is terrible yeah don't handicap yourself don't yet
don't three a busy part of the bus that's the worst yeah there's like yes
thanks for last night do you have to write your talk out word forwarded can
you just make bullet points you can do either it's interesting for me like
before my mission I had to write it all out and I'd go up and I'd read it and I
tried make eye contact with occasionally because that's good or look at the back
of the room nobody they're all naked maybe not that that's weirdest advice
I've never but like I had to write them out on my mission
I talked so much that eventually it got to the point where you can just talk
about whatever with just the thoughts that you've prepared in your head
beforehand after my mission I've gone back to writing out the whole thing
which I feel kind of bad about I'm gonna say for me I like it more when I can
just have a few points to it and just talk I think that leaves room like
little room on the page both my movement for the spirit to kind of fill in got
links well if you want to write it now I some I've written out talks word for it
I've given one so I just go up there so it you you really you pick so like we
were saying there's a lot of stuff that a lot of my mormons just kind of say
don't be afraid to go up there and just say what comes from your heart and it
doesn't have to be what do you think a mormon would say or what you've heard
other people say in their talks you know like feel free to just you know if it
comes to your mind and it's a spirit and it's appropriate obviously that is
something you can share and I think people will really enjoy that and really
appreciate the sincerity people that are like new converts that they give talks
those are fantastic yeah they're fantastic because they don't know what
they're doing and sometimes that's the best the best way to go you just clear
all preconceived formats and you just do the best you can and speak from the
heart and it turns out really great and another thing is like you might in the
church we have people speaking that are 12 years old and people speaking that
are 100 years old there's a huge range and you don't have to like expect to be
speaking at the level of at the level scholar yeah some of the best times are
also you know sincere thirteen-year-old kids who write just get up there and
talk about their you know how far they are along in the gospel and their
experiences and that's great like there's there's not a lot of pressure
you feel pressured because there's a lot of people in the congregation maybe but
it's it's a at the end of the day giving a talk is a fun opportunity so take it
don't be nervous don't be afraid just be yourself and let
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write your talk you're gonna do great yeah
good what
like hey she got trouble yeah let's stay like that mean it is a beautiful song so
you could get away with it for a second but then when people figure out what it
is we asked him to play come Bellefontaine
it sounded like he was playing closer by the chains