Youth

First of all, I've been looking at the statistics for who visits my silly little blog, and I want to say thank you to those who do.  And to those of you in Russia - wow.  So cool.  Isn't it neat how technology helps to make the world smaller and more connected?

Okay, now for the post:

In my church, we take turns serving in different unpaid positions.  We don't choose them, but we believe that our church leaders are inspired to call us to serve in those different positions.  A couple of years ago or so, I was asked to be in the Stake Young Women presidency.  A stake is a geographical region.  Within a stake are many wards (congregations).  Within each ward is a young women program, which is for girls between the ages of 12-18.  So what I do is work with the ward young women leaders who are part of my stake - does that make sense?

This evening we had a youth fireside (devotional?) for our stake.  All of the youth, boys and girls, from 12-18 years of age were invited to attend.  Unfortunately, there was not much of a turnout.  For those of us who were there, though, I feel like it was a really great evening.  There were five people who spoke, and the topic was service.  Two of the speakers were teenagers - one boy and one girl.  They did such a great job.  I was especially impressed with the boy who spoke.  He talked about how serving others is necessary for one to be happy.  He also made some comment like, "You can do all of the cookie-cutter [good] things, but if you don't give service that's all you are - a cookie-cutter."  He also mentioned how many people today are not accustomed to being served, which I think can be true. It's easy for us to be self-serving and to get so caught up in our busy lives that we don't reach out to others like we should.

I was just impressed to hear this boy, who seems to understand how wonderful service is and how necessary and important it is.  Teens can really be given a bad rap, but there are some very amazing ones, and I was glad to be with some of them tonight.

Amnesia

This weekend I met up with a guy who was passing through on his way home from some job training. He added a new one to my list of interesting issues from the guys I meet.  Amnesia.  I don't know if I've ever met someone with amnesia before.  He claims to not remember anything before this war injury from about a decade ago.  Can you imagine having a good portion of your life erased from memory?  So weird.  He said something like it's not strange to him because he doesn't know what it is that he doesn't recall.  I don't know if I'd feel the same way; I kind of hope I never find out.

He also said that there are certain emotions that he doesn't feel now, so I offended him by kind of asking if he's a sociopath.  Ahem.  I know that's not the most flattering thing to ask someone, but I was trying to understand.

Fall Break

I just got back from my fall break - I didn't post last Sunday because I was vacationing.  It was a good week, and it included several first (and last) dates.  Picnic dinner and walk, corn maze, putt-putt and ice cream.  I think the putt-putt guy was my fave, but there wasn't really chemistry with any of them.  So it started out as a kind of exciting week with new people to meet and fun to look forward to, and it ended in a little depression and questions such as:

• Is it worth it to go out with a ton of guys - does that actually help you find a keeper, or does it just mean a lot more "not going to go anywhere" dates?
• Should I stop paying money to a site to "meet" people?
• Will I ever find anyone I connect with?

Okay, a little dramatic, but you get to feeling a little dramatic sometimes when you don't see success.

Other than that, it was a good week, and now I've actually been to a corn maze.  It was really nice to go to my mission reunion and see my mission president and his wife, as well as a couple of missionaries I served with.  I got to spend some time with my brother and his family, and I watched a bunch of Monk with my grandma, which is always a good time.

General Conference was amazing, as always.  As I go back through the talks, maybe I will post on them.