The New Era, a monthly magazine for Mormon teenagers, has featured many of these young volunteers over the years. In 2008, they wrote about a group of teens who have made an unusual contribution to the Nauvoo pageant in Illinois—they play the bagpipes. The bagpipe band volunteers work for about two weeks, playing before shows, in mini-shows, and in the actual pageant. Many of these teens belong to bagpiping families and say playing such an unusual instrument has given them many opportunities to perform around the country. The bagpipes are considered an important part of the pageant because they represent part of the English culture of many early pioneer immigrants and because they draw people to the players. The teenagers say being in the pageant teaches them to interact with strangers of all types and to be away from home, which is excellent preparation for missions.

Read more about the bagpiping teens.

In 1990, the New Era wrote about a teenager named Craig who played Moroni in the Hill Cumorah pageant in New York State. It is a small but critical role. Moroni was just a teenager when his father died. In fact, all of his family was dead, as were all his friends and every single one of his people. He alone survived. Imagine that situation for a teenager. Now add to it that everyone who is alive wants to kill you. That was Moroni’s situation. He took the record his father had been working on and finished editing it down to a manageable size. It was the entire history of his people in the Americas. When Mormoni finished, he buried it and left, returning once to add to it. Then he hid it again and slipped out of a city still anxious to kill him. We don’t know what happened next until Joseph Smith, a fourteen year old boy, prayed to ask God which church to join.

God told Joseph not to join any of them just yet. A number of years later, Moroni returned, now an angel, to begin tutoring Joseph in preparation for restoring the Savior’s full gospel to the earth. So, even though Moroni’s part is small in the pageant, it’s a key to the whole play. Craig’s father plays Moroni’s father, Mormon.

Craig grew up right in Palmyra, where this whole story happened, where Moroni hid the records and where Joseph lived. He said that when he was a teenager, he finally gained a real testimony of the gospel as he sat in the same woods where Joseph once prayed for truth. Now, playing Moroni, he tries to let his testimony of that experience shine through.

Read more about Craig in the Hill Cumorah pageant.

If you’re interested in doing pageants next year, check out this article about teens in the pageants and learn how to get involved:

Youth a Driving Force Behind Pageants

1. Listen

A lot of times, when we’re talking, we’re busy thinking up what we’re going to say next and we aren’t really listening to what the other person is saying. Listen deeply to what someone else is saying. Ask questions to learn even more. Choose questions that will help you understand what that person is saying, feeling, and thinking. “Were you scared?” “How would you handle that if it were up to you?” You’ll get a reputation for being the world’s best conversationalist and people will know you care about them—making for some great friendships. In the process, you’ll learn more about how others feel about things and this will make you more empathetic.

1. Get to know people who are different from you.

Be careful about this. If you choose friends who drink or use drugs, for instance, you could find yourself in a lot of trouble. Choose good quality friends, but choose them because they aren’t like you sometimes. For instance, if you’ve never had to worry much about whether or not your family will have enough food to get through the week, find someone at school who is in that situation and then spend time really understanding what life is like for that person. Don’t be judgmental—just listen, learn, and if possible, help. If you love to read, find someone who struggles to read. If you’re a great athlete, get to know the kid who is picked last for the team every single time.

1. Read books that show things from a different point of view.

 One author wrote two children’s books. They were the same story, but one told it through the eyes of a child who was being bullied and the other book showed the story through the eyes of the bully. Children who read both were able to see both sides of the story and better understood the trials that might lead someone to becoming a bully. It didn’t make bullying right, but the children were able to understand him and to feel sorry for him. A book can give you insights into someone else’s mind, even if it’s fiction.

1. Do volunteer work.

When you are working with people who face a special challenge, you learn a great deal about their lives. If you go into the project with an open mind and loving heart, you’ll begin to develop empathy for them. Helping teach children to read who found it hard gave me empathy for what it’s like to not be able to read. I listened to them talk about their humiliation and their pain and as we worked together, I also learned to celebrate their small steps. Every volunteer project I do teaches me empathy for new things.

1. Imagine.

As a writer, I have to be able to see a story from the point of view of every character in order to make them come to life. Right now I’m struggling to understand a character I don’t really like very much. As I close my eyes and see things the way he does, he becomes a more sympathetic character to me. I like him much more now than I did when he first wandered into my story just because I understand him better. You don’t have to write a story, but try to picture yourself in the situation you don’t have empathy for just yet. How would you feel? What would you be afraid of? How would you want others to treat you? When it’s you, the situation seems different than when it’s someone else.

 Okay, to develop real empathy, you’re going to have to get off the computer and out into the world. Have fun!

What did Jesus ask us to do?

When Jesus was living on the Earth, he often worried about the people who were hungry, including those who had come to hear him preach for several days. He had fasted for a very long time at the start of His ministry, so He understood hunger. However, He had never experienced sin, and yet He was as kind to the sinner and as able to know just what they needed as he was to those who were hungry. This is because Jesus, being perfect, had empathy.

Teens who are empathetic look at others differently than those who are not. A teen who isn’t empathetic might look at a friend whose family is poor and think, “Wow, they must have made really bad choices, or maybe they’re just lazy. They probably deserve to be poor, and helping them will just encourage them to stay lazy.” An empathetic teenager might thing, “It must be really scary for Jim right now. I wonder what I could do to help. Maybe I can find a way to get him to take a few things of mine I don’t need without making him feel like it’s charity. And I could ask my dad if he needs anyone else to help out at his work. Jim might want an afterschool job.”

Jesus told us that we were not to make final judgments about people. That is God’s job. We can never really know what happens in a person’s life to cause the challenges they’re facing, and we also don’t know what will happen to us in the future. No one is guaranteed to be safe from trials.

Just because studies show teens are less empathetic today doesn’t mean we have an excuse to be that way ourselves. Jesus taught us to love one another and to serve one another, regardless of what other teens are choosing.

How can you become more empathetic? The experts are saying one solution is to spend more time in the actual presence of people—not online or on the phone, but in person, talking and getting to know them. Another way is to avoid media that desensitizes you to pain and suffering.

When you see someone who has a hard life, ask yourself how you would feel in that situation and how you would want to be treated. Try to picture Jesus Christ watching the person and then imagine what He would do. Once you know what Jesus would do, and what He would want you to do, you’ll know what to do yourself. Remember, you could find yourself in the same situation or one equally painful yourself someday. What would you want others to do for you then?

As Mormon youth, we too share the responsibility of sharing the gospel in our schools and communities. When we share the gospel, we held bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to those around us, but it also strengthens our own personal testimony of the Mormon Church. It can sometimes be intimidating to share the gospel, as we fear we might offend someone or be ridiculed. Despite these fears, we must persist in finding tactful ways to share our beliefs. With Mormon Testimonies, sharing your testimony has never been so easy.

Mormontestimonies.org is a website that aims at compiling written and video testimonies from members worldwide. This site is viewed by investigators of the Church, as they seek more information and support. Your individual experience, story, or conversion to the Mormon Church could greatly influence an investigator. As a young person, you have a great amount of influence and power. Taking the few minutes to write about how the church has inspired your life can have a great impact. You will also be able to view your friend’s testimonies, and other people from your ward and stake, under the “Browse Testimonies” link. Testimonies will be classified by geography, generation, by name, and stakes and wards. The process of submitting your testimony is easy. Simply go to the Mormontestimonies.org website and under “Quick Start,” type your name or pseudonym if you would like to remain anonymous, and start writing!

This is an extremely effective yet easy way for Mormons to share their testimony. The youth of the Church has some of the most influential testimonies in the church. Your words have the potential to touch and inspire those looking for the truth.

We are in the decision-making portion of our existence. The teenage years can be somewhat of a fall from the innocence of childhood, just like we came down to Earth from living in innocence with God. We need the knowledge we gain in life, as in teenage years, to grow up to our full potential. Though some of us would probably like to skip being teenagers, it’s a crucial learning stage. Even in awkward, emotional, challenging times, you learn important lessons to guide your life. Similarly, in the fallen state of mortality, we learn from experience the lessons necessary for our eternal destiny.

The lessons we learn in life and the decisions we make will determine whether we meet our full potential—whether we can become like our Father in Heaven. President Thomas S. Monson shared a story in the last General Conference, in which an elders quorum president was asked about the worth of souls:

The stunned quorum president hesitated as he formulated his reply. I had a prayer in my heart that he would be able to answer the question. He finally responded, “The worth of a soul is its capacity to become as God.” (Thomas S. Monson, “Our Sacred Priesthood Trust,” Ensign, May 2006, 56)

Being a teenager seems like everything when it’s happening, but when it’s over, it seems like a very short time—a time when we either prepared for the blessings and responsibilities of adulthood or we wasted time, thinking that just being a teenager was all that mattered. This life is the same way. We can either choose to prepare for the eternal adulthood—being like God—or we can be absorbed in mortality, thinking that this life is what matters.

So what does matter? Remembering the worth of your immortal soul, and preparing for the life to come. In this life, there are many ways we can prepare. We can take advantage of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He paid the price for your otherwise-impossible destiny—will you do what it takes to reach it? We can learn to know personally our Heavenly Father and our Savior. We can repent, pray, read scriptures, listen to our leaders, and control ourselves.

While the hope and destiny of every human being is great, the things that will bring that destiny into view are usually simple, sometimes tedious, and never glamorous. They are the little things we do every day, like praying meaningfully, repenting of smaller or larger sins, and going to Mormon Church meetings. But these small things are what bring about the miracles necessary to grow to be closer to and more like Heavenly Father. Daily devotion to doing the right is what brings a powerful testimony and witness from the Holy Ghost. Worthiness brings the blessings of eternity promised when we keep our covenants. Repentance allows the miraculous atonement really work in us, to clean us from sin and let God forget our wrongs.

In this time of making choices, as in mortal life, we choose what we will be. We choose whether to be morally clean adults, blessed by covenants and service. We choose whether we will become like God after this mortal life. At this time, remember what you are worth. Remember not to throw yourself away in the darkness of a tough decision. There is light in keeping an eternal perspective.

It is important for Mormon men and women to understand that, when men are ordained to the priesthood, they receive a power to serve others. They are given hard work to do, and the power to do that work; there is no inherent blessing in holding the priesthood, only in using it. A man can never use the power of the priesthood to bless himself, but he can receive blessings from using it to serve God. Women do not miss out on the blessings of service, since women are blessed with many inherent abilities and talents with which they can serve God and receive the blessings of service.

Women themselves are not without power of God from God. God’s amazing power to procreate is given to women, and the vast majority of that creative service lies solely with women. They receive blessings from providing bodies and nourishment for God’s spirit children on earth. The job is not easy, nor does it receive much recognition, but these injustices equal out in the next life. One might ask: If women held the priesthood, what would the men do? They would play a small part in the procreative power, and little else, spiritually. Men cannot do what women do, and they need a job to do in the Church, to grow and to serve, and that’s the priesthood.

God’s division of his power to work and serve on Earth cannot be completely understood. But in the Mormon Church, we must trust that God gives us the jobs we have because they are the best ones to help us grow and make us better. Men need the duties, hard work, and service of priesthood responsibilities. Women need the sacrifice, nurturing, and selflessness that come with motherhood.

It is not necessary for women to have the priesthood for them to receive all of the blessings of the priesthood. Women have the same opportunity as men to enter into all temple covenants, serve God in the Church as leaders, as teachers, or as Mormon missionaries. This week’s Youth Gem tells us:

I hope our granddaughters and grandsons grow up knowing that they are not and have never been third-party observers of the priesthood. The blessings of the priesthood, which ‘are available to men and women alike’ (Dallin H. Oaks, “Priesthood Authority in the Family and the Church,” Ensign, Nov. 2005, 26), are woven in and through and around their lives. Each of them is blessed by sacred ordinances, and each of them can enjoy the blessings of spiritual gifts by virtue of the priesthood. (Julie B. Beck, “An Outpouring of Blessings,” Ensign, May 2006, 11)

So service is always important. And so is standing for what you believe. Not everyone can be official Mormon missionaries–especially not when they’re teenagers. But when you stand for what you believe is true, no matter what others think, you stand as an example of your beliefs. You make them part of yourself. And you may find people admire you for it.
“When I was in South America, the young women and their leaders sang, ‘I’m Trying to Be like Jesus’ (see Children’s Songbook, 78). They not only sang the words, but they meant it. In Asia and India, young women are examples of faith, modest dress, and purity. Their eyes shine and they are happy. The young women in England, Ireland, and Wales are standing for truth and righteousness in their schools. In an ever-darkening world, they are making a difference. Some of you are the only members in your family or your school. You are making a difference. You are leading in righteous ways.”

(Elaine S. Dalton, “It Shows in Your Face,” Ensign, May 2006, 110)

(From Youth Gems)

But we need to be active. We need to reach out our hands to other people. We need to look to other people’s needs and be willing to put forth effort to meet them. We can be good influences.

In Mormon belief, we can be missionaries through example as well as through the Mormon missionary program. If we are kind to others, if we live what we believe, people will notice.

President Gordon B. Hinckley said:

“There is no end to the good we can do, to the influence we can have with others. Let us not dwell on the critical or the negative. Let us pray for strength; let us pray for capacity and desire to assist others. Let us radiate the light of the gospel at all times and all places, that the Spirit of the Redeemer may radiate from us.”

(Gordon B. Hinckley, “The Need for Greater Kindness,” Ensign, May 2006, 61)