North Park 1st Ward :)

Our first calling as a married couple is (drum roll).... youth sunday school teachers! It has been a great experience for us, especially with the new curriculum for youth classes. Instead of having a manual with set lessons every week, teachers are given a general topic for each month and then asked to prayerfully consider what direction to take the lesson each Sunday.

Our ward is unique in that there are only about 5-7 youth total (on a good day)... including boys and girls ages 12 to 17. There are a couple of foster families in the ward so kids come and go from the ward regularly. Sometimes we'll come prepared with a lesson and treats, and no one will be there. Other times there are as many as 7. We never know what to expect.

Sometimes we only have one kid in class (they're probably thinking, "well this is awkward...") haha. But I think these have been some of the most spiritual lessons we've had. This past week we just had one 15 year old boy that is a foster child staying with a family in our ward. He had been to church a couple of times, but was raised a Catholic. The lesson that day was suppose to be on the restoration, and it pretty much turned into the first lesson since the kid had never heard of Joseph Smith. It really was an amazing experience and he had great participation and some really cool comments. He promised to go home and pray about Joseph Smith, and I'm excited to hear his report next week :)

It is really special for me to be able to see Skyler teach this class. He usually is the main teacher and I pipe in here or there with my comments. Or we'll do the whole missionary thing where he will bear his testimony and then I will back him up with mine. Sky is such a good teacher and he is SO good with youth. He connects with them through sports, and gets their attention by using little analogies about things they can relate to. 

When we first started teaching, this one kid who often comes to our class would respond to any and every question we ask him as, "I dunno." We would even just ask him how his weekend was and he'd respond, "I dunno." But since then, we have learned that you can't just straight up ask him a question that requires any answer but yes or no. For example, we were learning about the apostasy a couple weeks ago and instead of asking him a question about the apostasy, Sky said, "Hugo, have you ever had a teacher leave the room at school and ask all you kids to be quiet and stay on task?" 

To this he replied, "Haha, ya."

"And what usually happens? Do you guys actually keep reading?"

"No! It gets crazy. Everybody starts throwing stuff and getting out of their seats and breaking the rules."

Then Sky would relate that to what happened on the Earth after Christ's crucifixion. 

It really has been a blessing for us to have this calling and I pray that we are blessing the lives of the kids we teach as well. This has been an awesome first ward as a married couple and we love the bishopric and have met some great new friends. We feel very blessed!