Adoption Profile/"A Brand New Year" Program

So we didn't really make any progress on our adoption profile this last week. Our new goal is to finish it all tomorrow night. Talking with some other couples, we found that we are a lot farther along in the new system than they are. We just need to get it done.

We had two great youth activities over the weekend. My "job" in church is the 1st Counselor in the Stake Young Men's Presidency. To help all my family members of other religions understand better...Each congregation in my church is called a ward (about 150-250 households = one ward), and a bunch of wards together equal a Stake (maybe a total of 3-5000 people make up a stake give or take). The first activity was for all the youth in my stake between the ages of 12 and about 18. We had around 300 youth participate (out of 500). Imagine 300+ youth and 200 adults all together on one basketball court inside (because it's winter here in Utah). We had dinner, talks, skits, and games all at one location. It was a blast! There's nothing quite like being in a huge gathering of youth that all want follow Christ.

The second youth activity was for a specific young man in my ward (the congregation my wife and I attend). He is sixteen and just earned the rank of Eagle Scout. I don't think I'd been to an Eagle Court of Honor since I had mine back in 1995. I've been to a couple on a District level but not an individual one in all that time. He's a great kid that is becoming a man of character. It made me think back to my time as a Boy Scout. I'm glad my dad made time to go on campouts and come to activities. I'm glad both my mom and dad made the effort to follow up and make sure I finished my requirements. I use the skills and lessons from my time in the program every day of my life. Be prepared. Do a good turn daily. I think there's a lot that we can learn from Scouting.