A wonderful experience

Per my last post, I'm simply blogging because I feel the need to put down on "paper" (cyber paper though it may be) thoughts that seem to important to let slip by unmentioned....

Saturday evening I was the "chaperone" for a youth activity. The purpose of said activity was to create a video that would be shared next Saturday at a Stakewide meeting. No real direction was given other than that....create a video to share with the rest of the Stake at next week's "Movie Night".

That leaves a lot to the discretion of the youth and they went at it with a vengeance. Wierd costumes came out of closets...I think we had a Fairy Princess dress, a "Great Pumpkin" costume (adult size), two swords, two cheerleader outfits complete with pom-poms (most cheer squads don't even use those anymore, and absolutely no idea for a script.

After almost an hour they came up with an idea "The Thirteen Articles of Our Ward" and a list on the chalkboard of things like:
1. We believe in having fun.
2. We believe in paying attention.
3. We believe in service.
4. We believe in eating at every activity.

then the list got worse:
5. We believe in sleeping through Seminary
6. We believe in choosing the wrong.

As the list got longer (I didn't put all the things here) there was a great deal of contention (only LDS people use this word but it means they were arguing, pouting, yelling, and generally behaving badly).

Without a single prompt from either of the two adults present my Seminary Class President stood up, made everyone be quiet and pointed out what a terrible atmosphere had developed in the room. He reminded them that they were there to create something worth sharing and then said "We didn't even begin with prayer, I think we should have one now, before we go any further". He said a beautiful prayer, the spirit in the room instantly changed and the video they decided to make was one in which each of them introduced themselves (we have recently changed stakes so the youth of this stake barely know us) told a little bit about themselves and then bore their testimony if they felt inclined. Before they did all this the Class President made a little statement (on the video) about what they had learned and how the prayer had made a difference in their attitude and then he explained they were simply going to use this opportunity to let the other Youth of the Stake know who we are.

It was a beautiful transformation from a group of "teenagers" into a group of "young adults", I was so pleased to have been there to see them struggle and then find the answer....the right answer.....to their problem. They found a way to turn a bad situation into a beautiful experience and I was never prouder of them in my life.

They truly exemplify Youth of the Noble Birthright!

P.S. Today in testimony meeting ten of those youth rose as a group and walked to the front to bear their testimony of what they had experienced last night. I've never left a testimony meeting that was more spiritual and uplifting than the one we had today!