Learning From Friends

As a young men’s leader working with the priests I have come to understand how essential it is to be a captivating speaker. Sixteen to eighteen year old boys do not listen unless they have a reason to, this is why speaking with confidence and power is so important.

I have learned a great deal about being a captivating speaker from a great friend whom I serve with. When speaking to the young men, be it in priests quorum, on camping trips or even just while do service, he constantly lures them in by the way he says things. He is a fire fighter by trade so I wouldn't set his vocabulary against someone like Elder Maxwell’s, but yet the things he says are profound, in a very simple way.  Yes, his dialogue is important but what differentiates him from others, is the conviction and power with which he speaks.

He wants those boys to succeed and when he speaks you can feel it. When he bears his testimony, or gives a lesson he puts everything that he has into what he says, in hopes that it will be the thing they needed to hear to keep their testimonies strong, or even bring remind them of truths that they once knew. I have seen him bear testimony on many occasions but yet every time I learn something new. It could be his profound use of diction

or his ability to relate with others easily but when it comes down to it, when he speaks others listen and are edified from doing so.