Grant Goes on a Mission: PROTECT OUR GIRLS!

In this letter, I talk about girls a lot, but please know that our boys need help too.

So this past week I saw a very little (6 or so years old) girl with a used, burned out cigarette butt in her mouth, and she was acting and playing with it pretending she was cool. Because that's what she's learned.

This broke my heart.

And I know its hard to picture, because shes so young. But here is my question. If it is so hard, so horrible to picture a little girl doing this, why is it more ok if the little girl was older, or a teenager? It's not.

It is very sad to me that our society is literally attacking our youth, telling them what pretty girls look like, telling them how to behave, what things to do. Telling them that they have to be better than the rest, and telling them that drugs, starving themselves, are the way to it.

And it's telling our young boys that girls need to be a certain way too. But we need to remember that true beauty, true "coolness" comes from loving one another and helping each other!

Our society is obsessed with loving yourself these days. But please please please, love thy neighbor. In that, you will find out what it means to love yourself. Loving yourself is not making fun of others, or trying to be cooler than others, it is being happy and being able to feel love for someone else.

Our society is telling girls and boys to put themselves down in order to be humble, but this is not the answer. We need try to focus less on ourselves and more and others.

https://www.lds.org/new-era/2014/09/to-the-point/i-have-a-friend-who-is-always-putting-herself-down-how-can-i-help-her-feel-better-about-herself?lang=eng

"Some suppose that humility is about beating ourselves up. Humility does not mean convincing ourselves that we are worthless, meaningless, or of little value. Nor does it mean denying or withholding the talents God has given us. We don’t discover humility by thinking less of ourselves; we discover humility by thinking less about ourselves. It comes as we go about our work with an attitude of serving God and our fellowman."

Contention will drive away any spirit of God. It is not a spirit of humility. If you have contention between someone, a roommate or someone that you have to spend time around that you dislike, chances are YOU feel the contention. And if you feel the contention, you can help fix it! But we cannot help fix contention by expecting them to change! Because, I have been with enough companions to know, they will not change. But they don't have to change! You can be happy! The very first way that you can feel love, remove contention from a relationship of someone you have to spend time with, is to do service for them.

Wash their dishes! Clean the floor that you both share! Shine their shoes (if they´re also a missionary)! But more important than anything is that you love them. I promise that as you serve them, and think less about yourself, less about how they have to change, you will love them, and you will begin to see them loving you back!

https://www.lds.org/new-era/2014/09/10-secrets-of-true-popularity?lang=eng

BUILD YOUR CHARITY. IT IS CHRIST LIKE LOVE!

You will find greater satisfaction and self-worth, as well as true humility.

Lastly, I´d like to share some words from our prophets for our girls

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2011/10/forget-me-not?lang=eng

I challenge you all to share a sentence from this talk with a girl you know. You dont have to mention where it came from.

"I want to tell you something that I hope you will take in the right way: God is fully aware that you and I are not perfect.

Let me add: God is also fully aware that the people you think are perfect are not.

And yet we spend so much time and energy comparing ourselves to others—usually comparing our weaknesses to their strengths. This drives us to create expectations for ourselves that are impossible to meet. As a result, we never celebrate our good efforts because they seem to be less than what someone else does." - President Dieter Uchtdorf

Though I am a missionary, I am not perfect. I am still a teenage boy, and I still need to watch myself. Holy smokes, Im actually 20 and no longer a teenager. But still. I am not perfect, but I am trying. I'm trying to love one another.

I know Charity is the answer. Love your roommates, your neighbors, your classmates. Just love them. Serve them.

I love you all, and please stay strong. If you can, give this talk a listen sometime this week:

Love! Elder Amann

Here's a picture of a different little girl to remind you that they´re just angels, aren't they? Let's keep 'em that way ♥ Because we´re all just angels of God.