In my husband's church calling as a stake president (oversees several congregations or wards) he is responsible for stake events. Tonight we held a fireside for all youth, 12 to 18 years old where we introduced the 2017 theme. Each year, a specific scripture is chosen as a theme and the purpose is to provide opportunities for teens worldwide to learn about, study, internalize, and apply the principles taught in scripture—to study its doctrine, and act on the principles learned throughout the year. The theme this year comes from the New Testament in James 1:5-6 (see image above) and we decided we would stand up together to speak which was definitely more fun that speaking by yourself (yikes!). Geoff and I talked about faith, which we compared to muscle. Years ago I had my 5 adductor muscles removed in my right thigh. This surgery was treatment for a rare form of cancer that required the excision of a large margin of tissue. Because I'm lacking these muscles, I cannot adduct my right leg and I can easily fall in situations that are slippery—think ice. So no skiing or skating for me. To help the youth actually SEE this deficit I crawled up on a table and did a little demonstration. I showed them that I cannot lift my leg up off the ground when laying on my right side. Then Geoff lifted my leg up and dropped it. I am not able to prevent it from falling (hard and fast) to the table. It's really rather FUNNY, and the kids loved it. They laughed. I think it was an effective object lesson because we went on to talk about how weak faith or a lack in faith can limit your ability to act on gospel principles and put you at risk of slipping and falling when your faith is challenged. Maybe I'll come back and add the slides I created with some of the videos and music we showed—right now, I'm done.

It started snowing at about 5:00pm, so we weren't sure if we'd have a good turn out, especially since it's a Saturday night. Events like this have traditionally been scheduled on Sundays, but at 7:00pm the chapel was full—probably 250 youth with a mix of parents and leaders. It was exciting to see it all come together, after weeks of preparation and planning. 

Today was a good day. 
I'm ready to relax!

p.s. Here's the video that The church produced ...