EFY 2000: Forward with Faith

I attended Especially For Youth at BYU in the year 2000 with my best friend Nathan Waitman. That week we received a few things corresponding with the theme at EFY that year, including a book with a compilation of talks from those who would be speaking throughout the summer. I must confess that I only read the talks from my favorite speakers and put the book on my shelf to collect dust. In continuing with my goal to read every book on my shelf, I finally finished this volume cover to cover.

Since it is a compilation of a variety of talks, I will just mention a few that really impressed me.

The first is by Ronald Bartholomew. He was my seminary principal at Timpanogoes. His talk is also one I read when I was 15. It is still a great talk about going forward with faith and leaving behind anything that is not worthy of me. In this talk he tells a classic true story of students who destroyed music in their personal collections that was unworthy. He also talks about The Book of Mormon changing lives. This talk will always be a classic to me.

Dwight Durrant gives a great talk on choosing between a mansion or a shack. The Lord has promised us all a mansion if we follow Him. Do the choices I make take me closer to that mansion, or am I building myself a shack instead? Satan tries to make a shack look mighty appealing, but I should never fall for his lies.

Todd B. Parker shares a powerful personal story of losing his mother, and not having the courage to tell her to her face that he loved her. He pleads with the reader to share all tender feelings with loved ones and to never let an opportunity go by.

Brad Wilcox gives a great lesson on different religions around the world. he treats them fairly and gives an accurate history of the religions and a sample of their beliefs. He is not degrading in any way. But at the end, he bears a powerful testimony of Jesus Christ and the religion that bears His name. No other religion is founded by someone claiming to be the Son of God, who then backed up such a statement with mighty miracles culminating in the atonement and resurrection.

My favorite talk in the book, though, was probably "What'ever Thou Art, Act Well Thy Part" by Matthew O. Richardson. This saying comes from a plaque that helped David O. McKay as a missionary, but Richardson applies it to families. Some families are broken. Others are strained. The cure is to follow this counsel. Whether my part is a son, brother, husband, or father, I need to act well my part. Even if nobody else is acting their part well, that does not give me permission to slack. And by performing well my part, I might have a saving effect on the rest of the family.

Reading this book written for teenagers at my age of twenty-eight has confirmed to me that Gospel principles are eternal. This instruction written for the youth is applicable and helpful for an adult. I love that about the Gospel!