Especially For Youth 2007: Power in Purity
By Spencer Ficiur
Doctrine and Covenants 121
45 Let thy abowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let bvirtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy cconfidence wax strong in the dpresence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the edews from heaven.
46 The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant acompanion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of brighteousness and truth; and thy cdominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever.
I had so much fun at EFY. I got lots of ideas about scripture study from devotionals and the testimony meeting was so powerful. It's so much easier to be a righteous youth when you realize that there are other youth out there that share your beliefs and EFY helps me realize, each year.
True Friends
In our Family Home Evening meeting on Monday night, our session director talked about being a true friend and having true friends. He had each person write down five keys to being a true friend and five true friends they’ve had. Our session director gave us a list of ways to develop better friendships. The first thing he said was to be sincere, because no one wants a hypocritical friend. The second thing was to be a good listener, because we all have problems that we need to talk to someone about and who better to talk to than our friends. The third thing he said was to be unselfish. I think that one is self explanatory because what kind of friend doesn’t help you? Showing brotherly love to them was the next thing he told us to do, because we should love our friends like our brothers. If we don’t love our brothers then something is wrong and we have to work on that. Our session director told us to let our friends be of service to us, because if we can’t accept service from our friends then we’re being prideful and it’s a sin to be prideful. The last thing he told us to do was to smile and be positive. A positive attitude and a constant friendly smile will invite people to associate with you.
Our session director also told us something that I hadn’t thought of but seemed very obvious after he said it. He told us that our families should be our best friends. His reason behind this was that our friends will change but we’ll be families forever. My session director also told us that the Savior wants to be our friend (D&C 84:77). The session director told us that our friends will determine who we are and a true friend will correct us when we are in the wrong.
FRO
Tuesday morning we had a Session Director Morningside. This time is was about learning how to feel the Spirit. Our session director told us to develop a FRO that week.
F stands for Feel. We need to be sensitive to the whispers of the Spirit.
R stands for Record. He said to record what the feeling was and what it told you to do.
O stands for Obey. After we know what the feeling was for, we need to obey the prompting. Our session director told us that if we obey the promptings, the Spirit can become stronger than the five senses. He also taught us at that meeting about keeping our thoughts clean because that helps invites the Spirit. He told us to listen to good music, read good literature, and to give thanks.
By Small & Simple Things
Tuesday was also our first day of classes. My first class of the day was called “Small and Simple Things”. The teacher said that without a goal, not much is accomplished. We need a plan of how to accomplish our goals. He gave us two tips to accomplishing our goals.
#1-Think about it. Establish in your mind what the goal is.
#2-Do things you have control over. You can’t control all of your surroundings, but you can control how you react to them. The second class was called “The Power of Good Friends”. The teacher told us that friends are valuable but not all friends are of equal worth. He also told us that our friends will greatly determine who we become. For the second time at EFY that year, I was told that my family should be come of my best friends.
“Hearing the Voice of the Lord”
After lunch that day, I had another two classes. The first class I went to that afternoon was called “Hearing the Voice of the Lord”. This class taught about ways to hear the Spirit. Our teacher told us that the Spirit doesn’t get our attention by shouting (1 Kings 19:11-12). If we are preoccupied, we may not feel it at all. He gave us four tips to helping us hear the Spirit.
Tip #1-Be still and make time to hear the Spirit. Most often answers won’t come right away. Heavenly Father will prompt us in quiet moments.
Tip #2-Be clean. Our teacher told us that we get our answers from the source of power we tend to obey.
Tip #3-Read the scriptures. When we want to speak to God, we pray. When we want Him to speak to us, we read the scriptures. Our teacher told us that the problems in the scriptures are solved by the same truths we use today.
Tip #4-Write things down. Once you hear the Spirit you want to remember what it said to you. The second class I was at that afternoon was called “What Every Young Man Should Know About the Young Women”. The teacher told us that it is a challenged to be a valiant, virtuous young woman in the world today and he told the young men in the class to treat young women with respect. Tuesday evening was the first dance. Near the beginning of the dance, the counselors showed us a skit to demonstrate how to and how not to ask a girl to dance.
FEAST
In the Wednesday morning Session Director Morningside, our session director told us that we have to take hold of the scriptures! Cling to them, walk by them, live by them, rejoice in them, and feast on them. They are “the power of God unto salvation” that leads us back to our Saviour Jesus Christ. Our session director told us that we radiate who we really are. He told us that each day will be great if we make Jesus Christ the centre of our lives. It is our privilege to say, every day in our lives, “That is the best day I ever lived.”
The first class I went to on Wednesday was called “The Invitation to the Atonement”. He told us that it was a hard class for him to do because on a subject like that, the Spirit should be the teacher and he didn’t want to get in the way of the Spirit. The second class I went to that morning was called “Reading the Scriptures”. The teacher gave us the acronym “FEAST” to help us get the most out of the scriptures. The F stood for First. Our scripture study should be the first thing we do in the day. The E stood for Everyday. We need to read our scriptures everyday. The teacher gave us the analogy that you need to brush your teeth everyday. If you miss a day, you can’t just make up for it the next day. The same thing goes for our scripture study. We need to read the scriptures everyday and if you miss a day of scripture study, you can’t just read more the next day to make up for it. The A stood for Apply. Once we read the scriptures, we need to apply what we learn in them. The S stood for Search. When we have a question we need to search the scriptures for an answer. The T stood for Taste Test. Once we read the scriptures, we need to test out what we’re told in the scriptures. One person in the class made a comment that “Ten minutes a day keeps Satan away”.
The Antique Road Show and the Worth of Souls
After lunch on Wednesday were two more classes. The first class I went to that afternoon was called “The Antique Road Show and the Worth of Souls”. The teacher told us that there are four things that give something value: When it was made, who made it, how unique it is, and what condition it’s in. He applied these four traits to the worth of our souls.
When were we made? Our souls were created before the world was created. The teacher also told us that those of us on the earth right now are some of the strongest spirits.
Who made us? We were made by Heavenly Father.
How unique are we? We are each genetically and spiritually unique. We will never be duplicated in all eternity.
What condition are we in? Our souls have been damaged, but they can be repaired. The teacher told us that there are five things to remember about the worth of souls:
#1-It’s never too late to repent.
#2-We can be clean again.
#3-Heavenly Father will remember our sins no more.
#4-We have to truly repent.
#5-If we repent, we will be happy.
POWER
Something else our teacher told us is that Christ is the Creator, the Healer. What He made, He can fix. The second class on Wednesday afternoon was called “Power in Purity”. The teacher taught us about the struggle between the spirit and the flesh. Our spiritual power involves the relationship between God and our spirit and our spirit and our body. The teacher told us three principles of power: The source of spiritual power is God. Spiritual power comes to us from Heavenly Father through the Holy Ghost. The purity of our lives determines the power that we can receive from Heavenly Father. Our teacher said there are three things we need greater power for: to resist temptation, to endure trials and challenges, and to bless the lives of others. The teacher gave us an acronym POWER to show the ways to gain spiritual power.
P stands for Prayer. We need to ask for more power.
O stands for Obedience. If we don’t obey, then we don’t get as much power because we aren’t as pure.
W stands for Work. We can’t just expect Heavenly Father to give us power if we don’t put some effort in.
E stands for Education. We need to know what we need the power for.
R stands for Repentance. If we make a mistake, and take away from our purity, we can repent and increase our purity.
On Thursday it was the spiritual day of EFY. We dressed in dress clothes. We had a Young Men’s meeting about the divinity of women and a lesson about the family. In that meeting we were taught that the priesthood carries the family back to the Father. He told us that God will hold us accountable if we neglect his daughters. Satan is trying to undermine the sanctity of womanhood. We were told to make young women feel like first-class citizens. We were told to help the young women feel better about themselves. Thursday night was our testimony meetings. This was, for many people, the best time at EFY. Since I’ve gotten home, I’ve asked a few people and they said that Thursday was their favorite day because the testimony meeting was so powerful.
On Friday we had a lesson the standards outlined in For Strength of Youth. At this lesson, out session director talked to us about dating standards. Our example for this topic was Joseph, because he was able to resist temptation and ran from Potiphar’s wife. Our session director told us to have boundaries. He told us that there is a line we should NOT cross. Later on Friday, we had a meeting with the session director about taking home what we learned that week. He told us a Japanese word, kitgatsuku, which means the inner spirit to do good without being told. He told us that when we feel the Spirit, write it down in a journal. Friday night was the banquet and the second dance.
Saturday was my least favorite day. It was a day of mixed feelings. On the plus side, I got away from those uncomfortable university beds. However, on the downside, I had to leave my group, my friends, my counselors, and EFY for another year.
(Only about 50 weeks until EFY 2008)
