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Sunday, December 25, 2016

Merry Christmas to Erik from Alex

My mind and my heart went 2 different ways for this one. In thinking of what to do for Erik, I kept thinking it should be something emergency preparedness related, because that is something I know Erik is involved in heavily. However, the more I thought on it, I really felt drawn to do something else instead. So I decided to follow the spirit instead of to my own thoughts.

In an effort to magnify my calling in the Young Mens Presidency in our ward, I decided that I needed to do something to show these boys that I do indeed care about them, and that if they ever needed an adult to talk to, that I was someone they could feel comfortable approaching. What I ended up doing was hosting my local young mens (boys aged from 12-17) to game nights at my house almost once per month. I say almost, because I missed a month in the beginning of the year, and a couple in other times when people all had too busy of schedules.

I talked to my Bishop ahead of time to make sure he was okay with it. He recommended I try to keep it under 2 hours per night, and get the boys home at a reasonable hour. We played many different games over the last year. I introduced them to Dominion, Avalon, Forbidden Island, and many others. They even used the opportunity to introduce games to me, such as Smash Up, or one that one of the boys themselves invented called "The Fight".

It's been tough at times to get them together for game night. Boys this age often have plans, some of which they forget about until at the last minute. However that didn't deter me from inviting them. Whether they be member or non-member, active or not, eventually got to be inviting some kids from outside the ward boundaries even, my aim was to make sure these boys knew there was a place they were invited to attend, to get to know eachother better, and enjoy some wholesome activities.

Erik, I love you, and I love your boys. I wanted to use this as an opportunity to share the love I have for my nephews, with those in my immediate area. I think, for the most part that it has worked. I no longer have to brow beat them into coming for the most part, in fact often they come up to me asking when the next game night is!  I didn't really plan to continue doing it into 2017, but from the way things look, these boys may not let me get away with that! Who knows, maybe I've started something new in our ward!

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