Carlie's First Talk

Carlie gave her first talk in sacrament meeting a couple weeks ago. She did such a great job! Here is a copy of her talk taken from the book "The Last Straw".
(If anyone sees this book on after-Christmas sales let me know. I could only find it for 30-55 dollars!) Here is her talk:

Brother Hawkes called me this week and asked me if I would share a Christmas story that reminds me of Jesus. After school on Friday I was babysitting Gracie and Natalie Hawkes. I hadn’t yet come up with something for Sunday, so after the girls had gone to bed I grabbed out a few Christmas books to read. I was reading a book called The last Straw. This book is about an old camel named Hoshmakaka who is chosen to bring the 3 gifts of frankincense, myrrh, and gold to the baby Jesus in Bethlehem. At noon he comes across a herd of goats and they want him to carry milk to the baby Jesus. Hoshmakaka doesn’t want to, but his friends say that he is as strong as ten horses, so he takes their gifts. As he continues his journey, he comes across other people who have a gift for the baby Jesus. Although Hoshmakaka doesn’t want to carry the gifts he does anyway because everybody thinks that he is as strong as ten horses. Pretty soon he is getting worn out because of the heavy load on his back when he sees the star in Bethlehem. He is determined to get there, but when a little boy comes up to him holding a piece of straw and says will you bring this to the baby. It’s all I have. It’s for his bed. Hoshmakaka didn’t want to, but it wouldn’t be any weight, so he tells the boy to put it on his back. Hoshmakaka had just reached the stable where baby Jesus was when he suddenly collapsed onto his knees because of the burden he was carrying upon his back. Now he thought that the wise men were mocking him because they also came to their knees. Hoshmakaka was just thinking that he wasn’t as strong as ten horses when he saw little hands reaching up out of the manger. The little hands reached up and touched Hoshmakaka. Immediately he could not feel the pain any more. His burdens had been lifted. (read last page in book) In Matthew 11: 29 we read…
I know my burdens are lifted when I ask heavenly father and Jesus to help carry the load. I know that you burdens will be lifted also if you ask him to help you too.