#ysa ward

It felt so informal!! They had nametags at the door, the chapel was pretty small and less intimidating (I've been meeting in a stake center for a few years now), and people just came up and talked to you (the young woman who spoke came over to me afterwards literally just to tell me how cool she thinks my hair is).

Everybody wanted to be there, or at least it felt like that. All of the folks there were around my age, and none of them were here bc their family was making them, they were here out of a genuine attempt to learn and follow the Lord's teachings. After my previous ward experience, I forgot that was really a thing.

I walked in late, and no one even batted an eye. Nobody minded at all--they'd all been there. Just turning up at all was enough.

Sure, the hymns did drag a bit, but I haven't felt connected to so many people through music and hymns in such a long time. Again, nobody was there to impress anyone. Everyone was there to worship.

During relief society, everyone was so earnest! One woman talked about how after she got her endowments she was a little unnerved and even scared of the temple, and then she spoke about how she overcame it and how easy it is to go to the temple--at our age you might not know why, or what there is to do other than baptisms (true lol) but she said that someone is always there to guide you. And then another woman said that some of us aren't able to enter the temple at this time and that's okay! If we still want to feel its safety, even just walking around the grpunds helps so much. I would never have heard any of those things brought up so casually in past wards.

For the first time ever, I had a moment of thinking about a calling like the chorister and going, "I could do that!" I've always felt too scared to do any sort of calling involving presentation, but already I feel safe enough in this ward that I was confident for a few minutes that I would be able to lead the music.

So on Sunday I got to meet officially my Ministering Brothers (for any non-members, that’s basically two guys who are assigned to be your friend and help you out if you need anything.) So they came over to my apartment to get to know me and it was a pretty good experience, we made small talk about our missions, majors, and hobbies.

Then one of them turned to me and asked “How can we best minister to you?”

Which, there are a lot of ways to answer that question, I started with some generic stuff, but I felt that saying more was not a bad idea. So I turned to one of them and said, “Also, I’ve noticed that you are quite the advocate for being inclusive to LGBT people at church,” he had given a talk about charity and spent a significant amount of time on the topic, and made at least 2 comments about it in Sunday School classes that I had noticed, “so, if you could just keep doing that, that would be great.”

He nodded appreciatively, then asked, “What’s your experience?” Which I think was a genius way to respond and invite me to open up without making me feel pressured into saying anything I was uncomfortable with. 

“I”m Bi,” I told them, knowing that I could trust them to be understanding. The response was “cool, our roommate is bi.” 

We proceeded to talk a little about the difficulty of being a queer member of the church, the relative progress that has been made, and the hopes we have for the future. We didn’t get into anything specific, but it was just good to know that these were people who I could talk about this stuff with. 

“We all have our struggles,” one of the brothers said, “And some of us are out and open about them and some of us aren’t. And both are ok.”

“And no matter what, Heavenly Father knows what our struggles are, and He will help us.” I replied with a smile.

And then we continued discussing hobbies and interests and getting to know one another. 

Today rolls around, talking to the other speakers. They were given the same prompt as I had, and they both had decided to talk about the Brass Serpent story. Who would’ve thought we all would come up with the same story, when the Bible is full of other stories?

A date where there is more than 2 people.

Not a group date where there are two couples. No. I mean the date involves like 3 people, or more. 

This happened once at a YSA ward* dessert auction. Girls make the desserts, guys bid on them with points from canned food they donated. Guys who bid the most points wins the dessert and gets a date with the girl. But the thing is. There were more girls than guys so some guys ended up winning two desserts so they got a date with two girls. I ended up in one of those dates. But I learned that they are actually kind of nice and less awkward because you have another person there with you and you don't end up with any awkward silences.

Polygadates are fun.

when a friend of yours comes up to you at church and tells you that the scripture that you picked for the program has helped them. I feel so good that I helped somebody. That is the first time that somebody has come up to me. I love making the program for my YSA ward and being able to help people in a small way. If anyone is wondering what the scripture is, it is Doctrine and Covenants 112:10