I Love Being a Member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

I had the awesome opportunity to be a leader for the Manhattan stake youth conference. For 3 days I got to spend time with 60 youth, which sounds so small for a conference but NYC doesn't have a bunch of LDS youth. We had tons of fun doing geneology, temple work, bowling and games as well as visiting lighthouses (the theme was "Arise and Shine Forth").

                                                  This is the Roosevelt Island Lighthouse

We also went on an awesome boat cruise with dinner and dancing. We stopped right next to Liberty Island because the Statue of Liberty is a beacon of light.

One of my favorite parts was a service adventure where we walked to different places in the city like Times Square, Grand Central Station, the bull in the financial center, etc. and we had the challenge to do certain service activities. I loved that the kids got to put charity and love into action through getting out there and serving the people in their community.

 We started off by cheering runners on in Central Park by holding up signs of encouragement and handing them water. Everyone loved it and the spirit of service was strong. We handed out balloons to people on the High Line, wrote uplifting messages on paper and handed them to random people, complimented and held doors or just looked for people who needed some love. I realized that many people here automatically assumed that if you were approaching them then you were selling something. One lady expected to pay money when one kid asked her if she wanted a balloon. It seems people are not really used to people going out of their way to be kind like this. It was wonderful to see the delight on the faces of the people receiving these smalls acts of kindness and I plan to do this again.

                       The last night we camped in Inwood Park and shared our testimonies.

 I loved hearing these kids talk about how being the only Mormon in their school is hard but through the conference they found more friends in the same position who cannot wait to let their light shine in such a dynamic city. That is what it is all about is building their love of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Have I mentioned how much I love the ward? I love how real the people are and that investigators and new members come every week. Most of all, I love that it feels like a family. Everyone really relies on each other for support and all the members are so loving and welcoming. It was like that growing up in Florida but I am not a youth anymore so I have a different perspective on my role as a ward member.

Andrew and I got a couple of callings in the good old Harlem ward. I was told by a friend that since we are interns staying for only 3 1/2 months then they wouldn't really pay attention to us. We aren't really cool with that so we talked to the Bishop and Relief Society President and made sure they knew that we wanted to get involved. It worked! We got to give talks a couple of weeks ago and are going to be Nursery leaders until we leave. We also served as choir members and got another calling that is unique to the ward. They are trying to put together a youth mentor program and need us to research resources for the mentors to have. They want to be able to help them attain life goals like college, scholarships, camps, career paths, etc. so that they can be successful. I think it is a great idea and it should be implemented on a church-wide basis. Some of the youth do not get this info at home or at school in the inner city so this is a great way to give them individual attention and help them understand the opportunities in their community. I have already found great resources and am so excited to see how the program turns out. I am actually surprised that this hasn't happened before.