Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Yeah...and good luck with that

I have had a lot of callings in the church over the years. With that said, my latest one leaves me scratching my head (bald).
I remember so vividly the evening the Bishop called Afton and I into his office for "a chat".
"Brother Ard, we would like to call you as the new Young Men's President." I immediately had a flashback of all the great activities I did when I was a youth; scout camp, fishing trips, shooting guns, weeklong horse trips deep into the wilderness, and rock climbing just to name a few. I could hardly keep from jumping out of my seat.
That entire week I was planning our high adventure activities, lessons I was going to use to mold these boys into men, and how I was going to get all these young men out on missions. That next Sunday in the third hour I walked into the room… four adults and two young men. Not two priest, two Aaronic Priesthood holders! Well, the good news was that the other ones were gone that week. When I say the other ones, I mean the other one (and he was 17.99999999 years old). The next week he announced that he had turned 18 and would not be returning. I had one Priest! Well… then I decided I would do a super job with the one I had.
The next week, a few minutes before mutual started, I sat down on the couch next to him so I could learn about his dreams and aspirations, where he was spiritually, and how I could help him achieve greatness.
Me- “Hi there Oliver! How are you doing?”
Oliver- “Ok, I guess”
Me- “So what did you do today?”
Oliver- “……..”
Me- “Ok, so what do you like to do?”
Oliver- “I don’t know”
Me- “That’s cool… that’s cool. Do you like any sports?”
Oliver- “No”
Me- “Hmmm, what do you like to do?”
He then mumbles under his breath something incomprehensible, “mmmmffff mmmfmfffmf fmfmfmfmf”.
Then after a few seconds of silence, while I am trying to figure out what he just said to me, he stands up and walks away. That was the last one on one conversation he and I ever had.
Several months later I have to say that things are going super duper (actually the same as before).
I have decided to start wearing a giant button on my suit that reads “Vote me for sacrament bread bringer”.