FYI:
For Your Info

Here’s a new one for you. Cut out each of the following goals, put them in a jar, then draw one out each day of the month and try to reach it.

[A Goal a Day]

by Geri Christensen

TODAY I’ll concentrate on repenting of something I really need to clear up in my life.	TODAY I’ll do something good on my own, without waiting to be told or reminded to do it.	TODAY I’ll be glad I’m different from the world, and I’ll realize that people will respect me if I live up to my beliefs.
TODAY I’ll keep working on whatever it is that I’m doing and I won’t give up until it’s finished.	TODAY I’ll concentrate on the things I like most about myself and forget about what I don’t like.	TODAY I’ll listen to a friend and be patient with his or her problems.
TODAY I’ll try to see myself and everyone else as the Lord sees us—as people of great worth.	TODAY I’ll go over what I’ve accomplished in the past year.	TODAY I’ll forget about what I want to become happier and will think about what I can do to help others become happier.
TODAY I’ll do something special for someone else for no other reason than just to brighten their day.	TODAY I’ll keep a strong, sincere prayer in my heart all day long for something that is truly important.	TODAY I’ll look for someone who needs some encouragement or understanding and give it to him or her.
TODAY I’ll concentrate on how much Heavenly Father loves me.	TODAY I’ll do something that’s difficult for me, that I’ve been putting off for a long time.	TODAY I’ll do my best at something, then give myself a pat on the back for my accomplishment.
TODAY I’ll try to make my family glad I’m one of them by being really nice to them all.	TODAY I’ll really listen for the still, small voice and obey the spiritual promptings I receive.	TODAY I’ll learn something about one of my ancestors that I didn’t know before.
TODAY I won’t do something I know I shouldn’t.	TODAY I won’t be jealous or envious of what anyone else has or can do.	TODAY I’ll keep my thoughts pure and positive all day long.
TODAY I’ll try to act as if the Savior were standing right next to me.	TODAY I’ll write a letter to a parent and say how much I appreciate him or her.	TODAY I’ll get involved in something worthwhile that benefits others.
TODAY I’ll make sure I’m absolutely honest in all the things I say and do.	TODAY I’ll stop trying to be something I’m not, and enjoy the good things I am.	TODAY I won’t judge someone who is different from me. I’ll try to appreciate him or her.
TODAY I’ll memorize a scripture and apply it.	TODAY I’ll let a teacher or adviser know how much they’ve helped me.	TODAY I’ll count my blessings all day long.
	TODAY I’ll tell someone I love them.

Facelift

Have you noticed that FYI is getting a new look lately? You told us that you’re tired of reading dazzling pieces about “perfect” people, so we’re changing things around a little.

We’ll be printing more hints and ideas from you about your great service projects, youth conferences, activities, etc. We’ll also print some of your favorite quotes (with sources) and ideas. Spiritual insight and brief testimonies about specific topics would be good too.

But to do this, we need more input from you. Send us anything you think would help, inspire, or amuse other LDS teens. Send photos or drawings, but please, not the originals, because we receive more than we can return.

We hope to make this a bulletin board for you. Send your input to FYI, New Era Magazine, 23rd floor, 50 East North Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150. Mil gracias!

Mission Prep

Justin Johnson, who plays on the Bonneville High football team in Ogden, Utah, puts it this way:

“Most people think football season starts with the first game, but that’s not the case. We started practicing clear back in July. We had to condition and that takes time. You can’t start one or two weeks before your first game and expect to be in top shape and know all the responsibilities of your position.

“I think the same principle applies to missions. I can’t just turn 19 and be prepared to go away for two years. I need to be ready and able to teach people things I’ve been learning all my life. I need to condition myself mentally and spiritually for a mission as if I were conditioning physically for football. But I need to train for more than a couple of months, because a two-year mission is longer and more important than a football season.”

Good Idea

Everyone goes to retirement homes around Christmas, so why not try it at a different time of year, like Thanksgiving? So thought the Beehives of the Fairview Ward, York Pennsylvania Stake. Instead of Christmas carols, they sang Thanksgiving hymns to the residents and then visited with them awhile.

It was an especially good experience for Beehive president Audrey Parks, whose great-grandmother lives in that home. It was also interesting for Beehive Wendy Rock, who is blind and received a lot of attention from the elderly residents when she began reading from her braille hymnbook.

Several of the girls make frequent trips back to the home to visit the friends they made the day before Thanksgiving.

Way to Go, Hong Kong!

Seminary is becoming a big deal in Hong Kong. There are both daily and home-study seminary classes taught. They held their year-end seminary graduation ceremony, with a dinner, 17 graduates, speakers—the works.

There are two groups of seminary students in the area. One consists of a dozen or so “expatriates,” or foreigners living in Hong Kong. They’re people like Mark Abernathy, an American who has lived in Hong Kong most of his life and speaks fluent Chinese, and Rusty Berg, who has also lived in Spain and Saudi Arabia.

The second group consists of a few hundred Hong Kong natives, youth who were mostly introduced to the gospel by the missionaries—people like Lam Keng Chon, who has to travel across the harbor from Macau, and Yeung Kak, who spoke at the graduation ceremony.

The seminary students enjoy studying the same material and getting together every now and then for things like Super Saturday activities.

Workshop Scholarships

Do you love computers? Are you in the top 10 percent of your class? If so, you might be eligible for a scholarship for a two-week, hands-on computer course offered by the Advanced High School Studies Program at BYU.

Candidates for the full-tuition scholarship must be high school juniors with top grades in English, math, and science. ACT or PSAT scores are also required. No previous computer experience is necessary. The program entitles students to two semester hours of credit when they enter BYU, and the best students at the workshop will be candidates for further scholarships.

For more information, write to AHSSP ’92, Department of Computer Science, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602; or call [phone].

Hoe Hoe Hoe

Young Women and Young Men in the Ontario California Stake worked in conjunction with the city to plant 840 trees and shrubs along a four-mile stretch of main road. It was a blooming good time!

Mr. President

Brett Braithwaite of the Manti Third Ward, Manti Utah Stake, has been chosen for the major honor of serving as the National Explorer President. This is no little job. He’s now the youth voice on the Boy Scouts of America National Committee, and he has about a zillion other responsibilities. Good training for a mission, which he plans to serve when he turns 19 at the end of his term.

To Whom It May Concern:

“Last Sunday in Young Women we were handed printed programs and three separate flyers: one for a fireside, one for a dance, and another for a bishop’s youth council meeting. Then my teacher gave me a photocopy with a poem on it.

In Sunday school, each student got a three-page handout on prayer.

When I went to sacrament meeting, I got another program with an extra sheet of music inserted and two other flyers on ward activities.

I checked the trash can by the door on the way out of the chapel. It was full of flyers. I wonder how many trees we went through that day?”

—A Concerned Laurel

A Great Notion

Looking for a great youth conference idea? The Bountiful Utah South Stake, shared this with us. They used an Olympic theme and divided groups of kids into countries. Coaches were selected from the singles ward. The groups met prior to create a logo and to learn about the country they’d “represent.” There were opening ceremonies; a dinner with food from each country; crazy Olympic competitions; speakers talking about the Olympian effort it takes to prepare for life; a dance; a testimony meeting; and the main event—each country performed a community service project.

Photography by John Luke