Leaders

One thing I was always blessed with as a young man, besides my winning personality and rugged good looks, was a bunch of great young men's leaders.

I'm talking about leaders like Craig Sabey, who wasn't just your dentist, but he was also the guy who was going to kick your butt up and down a mountain if you didn't bring your blue book on Sundays. Leaders like Ken Reed and John Gibb, who would use their positions on the Police Department to help you get dates with girls. Leaders like Clint Maucieri, who wasn't just fun to draw, but just plain fun to be around. Leaders like Dave Wood and Guy Elford, who kept vehicles of all kinds in working condition, despite our best efforts to destroy them. Leaders like Bishop Wolff and Kevin Way, who could take a group of about 20 sarcastic teenage boys, and not only get them to think spiritually, but get them to enjoy it.

I don't know if any of those leaders ever thought we looked up to them, but we did, and I know we still do. It can be a challenging thing to appeal to the younger generation, but they did a fine job of it. Most of us guys have now been called to serve in the young men's program in one capacity or another, and when we gather, the challenges associated with those types of callings often comes up in conversation.

One such occasion was when a few of us visited Kevin Way in the hospital a couple of weeks ago. We took the chance to ask for his advice on the matter, and being an expert, he had some great things to say. You can read more about that visit here. Clint Maucieri was recently in our stake young men's presidency, and he's been a great source of insight for me over the past couple of years as well, even though he thinks the world will never see a finer program than what we had in the 17th ward.

The challenge of leading the young men in our ward is no longer my responsibility however, as they released me as young men's president a few weeks ago. I guess someone heard about our move down to Lethbridge and they figured that between that and a new baby arriving soon, I would be too busy to keep up with the program. I'm sure they're right.

We had a hike planned for the Saturday after I was released, and since the new Young men's president wouldn't be sustained until the following Sunday, I went for one last hurrah in the mountains. We hiked only part of the way up Yamnuska because time constraints wouldn't allow us to go the whole way. I say we, but I should say they, because I got separated from the group and hiked an entirely different trail for about 3 hours. Not quite the hurrah I was hoping for, but it was nice spending a little time on the mountain by myself, and I found a neat little waterfall while I was at it.

I'm going to miss being in the young men's program, and I think I might even miss the young men. I started teaching some of them in primary and cubs over 5 years ago, and I've kind of followed them up through the program ever since. We all know each other pretty well by now, and I'd say we've become pretty good friends. I guess my greatest hope would be that I've been the kind of leader that made as good impression on them as mine did for me. That might be asking too much, but someday they might be a leader for one of my children, and I really don't want anything I've done to come back and haunt me.