Anchors of Testimony

We did this at Youth Conference in June 2008. We combined 2 talks-“Good, Better & Best” and “Anchors of Testimony”. I started with “Good, Better, & Best”. A trip to Lake Powell was discussed and how the house boat was occasionally anchored from the front of the boat and latched behind a rock (good), other times it had the front & back anchored behind rocks (better), and then with the front & back anchored with a pole anchor drilled into the rock. When the storms and winds hit us during the night, the best anchor was the one drilled into the rock. Often times if we didn’t have our anchors in correctly we would be awakened during a storm and quickly have to start the boat and move it while we tightened the anchors. Later this was compared to life (good, better, best) We talked about the story of Mary and Martha and had a youth read it. The youth then listed the things in their daily lives. Work, school, seminary, mutual, FHE, family dinner, scripture study, texting, internet, friends, etc. After that we discussed that the best things were those that strengthened our testimonies in Jesus Christ. The youth then labeled all of the things listed on the board as good, better, or best. Often times we have many good things to choose between, but if we chose the best our testimony’s will be strong during the tests of life. I showed an example of a jar with rice and rocks. The rocks represented the best things in life- scriptures, church, mutual, temple, etc. Anything that strenghtens our testimony. The rice was just the good, things that are ok, but don’t really strengthen our testimony. If it is put in the jar in the incorrect order it won’t all fit. I showed the jar at the beginning with rice and the rocks at the top overflowing. In the correct order, doing the best things first, then I put the rocks in an empty jar, then the good things can fill in. The rice fits around the rocks and it all fits in the jar. I compared this to our lives.

The next speaker focused on the “anchors of testimony” talk from the 2008 Young Womens Broadcast. She used the stories from the talk. During her talk the Youth listed on the board the tools God has given us in this life to accomplish the things he has asked of us. Examples are: Church, Priesthood, Patriarchal Blessing, Scriptures, Prophets, etc., etc. President Kimballs area of “What I will & Won’t Do” was great. At the end of the class, each youth was given a hammer and 2 orange paint sticks. We had spray painted some paint sticks bright orange before the class. We had the youth list on one stick what they will do, we gave them some examples. “I will go on a mission, I will go to church every Sunday, I will dress modestly, etc.” Then on the other stick they listed what they will not do: “I will not look at pornography, I will not use foul language, I will not break the Sabbath, etc.” We brought hammers which we had spray painted gold and had the youth write on the hammer what tool, from those they had listed on the board, they want to use to accomplish their “will and will not”. We went out to the lawn and made a pathway with the sticks. One side had the Will and the other side had the will not. They used the golden hammer with their own personal “tool” to hammer in the the paint sticks. This was such a powerful example and one of the spiritual highlights of Youth Conference. We bore testimony through out our presentations and it was so great.