Migillicutty Speaks

Migillicutty is 12 years old and lives in Las Vegas. She loves reading, Star Wars, singing, babysitting, history, science, blogging, and being obnoxious (ha ha ha, just kidding). She tells us she has a fantastic mom, an overprotective dad, and three little brothers. She has her own blog at sarsahm.blogspot.com, where she tries very hard to be funny. She also writes much older than her years. Thanks for sharing your talents with us, Migillicutty!

The first thing I want to say is, it's not like you think. Mormon teens are supposed to be totally different form everybody else, totally "I hold to the standards of the Church completely and totally every single second of every day." I'm certainly not like that, I don't know anyone, teen or adult, who is THAT good, not all the time.

We have a framed poster in my house that says what the youth of the church are like. ARE like, not SHOULD BE like. Some of the things on that list are, "Sound in Thought and Spirit", "Hungry for Things of the Spirit", "Seekers after the Truth", "Crave the Faith their Parents have in Simplicity and Purity", "Want to be Beneficiaries of this Faith and Call it Forth to Work", etc, etc, etc.

Where do they get that from? What do they mean by that? If they mean want to increase their faith, but can't or don't always remember that they do, that's how it really is. They should say what they mean, though. If they mean ALWAYS Sound in Thought and Spirit, like ALWAYS, then most youth of the church - at least most of the ones that I know - aren't really like that. Neither am I. I guess a few are, sometimes, but some, for example:

I went to a teeny-tiny almost all Mormon private school last year. At the beginning of the year I was looking forward to going to school with kids of my faith, who would respect me for my values, etc.

There were 14 kids in that class, and the only two kids besides me who were not in a relationship (at some time or another) were both Catholic.

Dating is probably the biggest issue for Mormons my age. Most of the girls in my beehives class are dating, too. Profanity is sometimes an issue, too, along with suggestive jokes and the constant rudeness that you always get from popular girls. If you asked any one of them what was the right age to date, they would all say 16. If you asked them about appropriate topics for conversation, how to treat their parents and siblings, etc, they would give all the right answers.

It's not like they don't know when something they are doing is wrong, they just don't think they will get caught. And they usually don't get caught. And I couldn't figure out why. I mean, I could tell why, but... I couldn't see why they couldn't just be friends with the boys they were going out with.

That was really hard for me last year, because I wanted to be able to go to my friends for help, when I needed it, but I knew that I couldn't rely on them, because I could see the choices they made were not good. But I'm not saying that they were like that every second of every day; at church, and girls camp, and testimony meeting etc., we could all really feel the spirit. When we are at meeting like that I really feel a... closeness..or similarity... or something... with the other girls, like we are all trying and having a hard time getting back to heaven, or whatever. But at mutual and other times, I didn't feel that.

So when I had a problem, I had to go to my mom. And do you know what? I think she had some pretty good advice, usually. She went to 7th grade once, and it sucked for her almost as much as it did for me. So she knew what to do more than I did. Once I asked her why those girls date when they are 12. She said it might be because they need someone to make them feel confident in themselves. She thinks they really are trying to get back to heaven, but they are having a hard time, just like I am. That they really do want to Increase their Faith, but they struggle with it, like everyone does at times.

One of the things she always told me to do was pray. I prayed almost every night for my classmates, and I prayed for myself even more. I think it helped, at least some of the time.

I threw myself into Personal Progress, too. One of the things I had to do was read the Book of Esther, in the Old Testament. I remember I was a little incredulous when I learned I had to read that whole book, just for one experience. I gritted my teeth and read it, though. And it was really cool. Esther was so brave. She could've died, just for being a Jew, but she stood up had held her head high and did what had to be done. And she fasted for three days before she did it. Wow. I can really respect how hard it is to stand out from the crowd.

As well as personal scripture like that, I also read with my family every day before school. I didn't actually get that much out of it, but it was good to be with my family, doing what the Lord wanted me to do.

I mostly felt more peaceful when I was either at church or with my family. Mostly. There were still YW lessons that doubled the strength of my eye-rolling muscles, and there were still times when I wanted to rip my brother's hair out, but at least 80% of the time, I felt that with my family was the best place I could be.

And Church? If you really want to feel the spirit,that's the second best place in the world (since the first is the temple).