The Holy Ghost comforts and guides me.

What is that special gift?

I’d like you to listen to a few sounds and tell me what the sound is and what it means is going to happening.

Car, train, siren, blender, telephone, shower etc.

(Hang up the pictures on the chalkboard when they guess them right).

You know what these sounds are because you have listened to them before and you have learned what they are through experiences.

Just like how you have learned these sounds, you can learn the sound of the Holy Ghost.

Here is a gift, and inside it are phrases that you might hear from the Holy Ghost.  We are going to see what we can do to learn how to listen.

**Inside the box have several warning strips that they can pick out from the box.  Have them whisper what the strip says.  Ask the other children if they were able to hear what the child said.  Have the child whisper it again.  Do this a few times until you notice that the room is super quiet for the children to hear.  Do this with 3-4 word strips.  On the last word strip, clang around with the chairs, try and have a conversation with the other leaders so that it is harder to listen.  (Idea from Sugardoodle.net)

Junior:

• Stop.
•  Don’t go there.
• Don’t touch that pan.
• Put your shoes on.
• Don’t run.

Senior:

• Don’t run.
• Look both ways.
• Look up.
• Call your mom.
• Don’t go alone.

In our lives it isn’t always going to be quiet when we need to hear the Holy Ghost.  So it is important that we learn during some quiet moments what he sounds like.  And we also need to understand that sometimes the Holy Ghost will direct people differently.

When I was a little girl, maybe 4 years old, my family had gone camping with our best friends.  My friend and I had wandered off of the path and somehow got lost.  I curled up in a ball and cried while I said a prayer that our families would find us.  Tara stood up tall and screamed at the top of her lungs! Our parents found us because we both did what we felt like we needed to do.

Sometimes we will feel a very strong prompting and we will never know why we felt it or what would have happened.  When I was a teenager and I was out with my friends for a drive, we had planned on going up the canyon.  But as we got closer to the turnoff, several of us felt like we shouldn’t go up the canyon.  We brushed it off until the prompting was so strong we all agreed to turn around.  To this day we have no idea why we couldn’t go up the canyon but we also know that we were safe.

Other times we will be prompted to do something but do it more carefully than we would otherwise.  A couple of years ago my family was up at a cabin by Sundance.  It had snowed lightly that night and I had to get Ivy down to a birthday party in Lehi.  My husband said, “be careful.  Are you sure you want to take her down?”  It was her cousin’s birthday so I said yes, I’ll take her but I also paid attention to the strong feeling to be careful.  While I was driving, my mom called me.  I told my friend, I don’t feel like I should answer the phone.  I need to be extra careful.  The next thing I knew, we were sliding off of the canyon road.  We rolled several times down the mountain and stopped on our side in the river.  No one was hurt.  We were watched over because we made choices to be extra careful and to listen to the prompting not to answer the phone.   The accident could have been much worse if I was distracted at all.

The Holy Ghost is a very special gift: one that we need to learn how to hear and take the time to heed his warnings.

How do we learn how to hear the Holy Ghost?

If you learn to listen to the Holy Ghost, you will gain blessings and experiences that will build your testimony and help you be a better missionary, friend, child, parent and person.

I am so grateful for this special gift from my Heavenly Father.  I hope that each one of you will take some time to pray and pause to learn how he will speak to you.

 In closing would anyone else like to share a time that the Holy Ghost helped you?

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.