Quick thoughts

I have to get to work but it's been such a great spiritual weekend for me that I wanted to share a couple of uplifting thoughts:

1. The "lost" verse to "Rise Up, O Men of God" as quoted and a favorite of Gordon B. Hinckley:
Rise up, O men of God!
The church for you doth wait,
Her strength unequal to her task;
Rise up and make her great!

2. Leadership in the Young Men: It's all about the boy.

3. President Dhalquist (Young Men General President) spoke to us on Friday and Saturday. He grew up in Weiser, ID. Very cool. He has a WHOLE bunch of daughters and no sons. He said this is why he has had such an interest in making sure the Young Men of the church were on the right path.

4. Twice I heard this one about Winston Churchill this week - once in a movie and once by Bishop Jacobson so it must be significant to something: There's a great story about how he was asked to give a speech to a graduating class at Harvard one year shortly after World War II. After a long winded introduction, he got up, walked to the microphone, took a deep breath, looked around at the lecturers, the dignitaries, the students, their families and their friends and said: "never, ever, ever, ever, give up". He turned around, walked to his chair, and sat down – amongst stunned silence I would assume.

5. At the end of my Priesthood lesson on Sunday, I gave the boys about 15 minutes to bear their testimonies. After the first two easy/light ones, there was a LONG silence. Tagaloa asked if we were just going to sit there all day. I just nodded. He said, "Well, maybe I'll just stand and say the closing prayer then." but didn't move. After another long pause, he stood and said, "Well if we're just gonna sit here, I might as well say something. I don't know if it's gonna be a testimony or something like that..." Then the spirit hit him. Hard. He said that he's been spending a lot of time trying to figure out what he's doing in life. He said he's not really sure what he's doing, just kind of drifting. Then the tears started a little and he said that life can be really hard sometimes, especially when you're not sure what you're going to do next. He said he's not sure why, but Church is about the only thing that makes him feel better. He then turned to the boys and he said, "My whole life, I've relied on what my parents and stuff have said about the Church. I'm realizing now that you can't just ride on their backs forever. Someday you have to figure it out for yourself. I've always been told that but it's just starting to hit me, you know? You have to figure out if it's true for yourself." With tears streaming down his face, he sat down and Cameron stood up and bore a similar testimony but added that he had wandered recently and noticed how much it hurt spiritually and how badly he wanted back to feeling at peace and happy again. He said he's been working at it and that the Bishop has helped him a ton. He challenged the other boys to stay on the course and not wander because it's hard to come back. He sat down again and we closed the meeting. I was so happy I thought I'd burst on the spot. It was the greatest day I've had in a long time.