FOR THE STRENGTH OF YOUTH

September 16, 2010

Two of our YW are going to youth conference in Perth at the end of next week. President Robinson interviewed them and felt they were worthy to go. He said he’d talked to them about the dress standards, but then he asked me to go over the dress standards in the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet with them. So last night the girls came over. KerryAnne, a girl who’d pretty much told us a month or two ago that she didn’t want anything to do with the church, came along with her sister, Carolyn. So we had 5 there, 3 members and 2 non-members. The week before I’d made Sha’s chocolate chip cookies, and they wanted to make them. So when the girls arrived, I had them mix up a batch and put it in the oven. Then we sat down and started at the beginning of the pamphlet taking turns reading paragraphs. I’d stop them and we’d discuss an important point or two. They didn’t have many comments as we read about friends, education, etc. Then we got to the dress standards. The first two pages are pretty benign (other than the pictures of girls in mid-calf length skirts and no girls in shorts of any kind.) But on the third page, the details start coming out. Oh my goodness! Poor Carolyn, who almost always is in a spaghetti strap top with her ugly (not very clean) bra straps showing,and wears short shorts, really had a shock. Getting her to be willing to wear mid-thigh shorts was a struggle. Thank heavens for tights! At least she will be somewhat covered. I hope the leaders down in Perth don’t think we are apostate up here. Tammy was cool with everything. She’s a little overweight and her mom makes sure she is dressed modestly. Dale, Tammy’s older sister who isn’t a member yet, kept stressing, “It’s all about not offending the people you are going to stay with.” It was an interesting time, and I think that in the long run they have accepted it. We will continue on with the other standards another night. (All of them have a problem with swearing, but they try hard around us to keep their language clean.) The poor kids—so much comes from their parents. They have a lot to overcome!