AMICITIA, n. [Latin] /ah-mee-CHEE-tsee-ah/: Friendship.

"Be careful of your friends.  They can make you or break you.  Be generous in helping the unfortunate and those in distress.  But bind to you friends of your own kind, friends who will encourage you, stand with you, live as you desire to live; who will enjoy the same kind of entertainment; and who will resist the evil that you determine to resist."      -President Gordon B. Hinkley, General Conference, May 2004

True friendship is important.  That's why our youth committee decided to devote an entire day to discovering ways to not only make friends, but to be a friend.  The "Amicitia Youth Seminar" will take place on Wednesday, the day before the regular LDSEHE Youth Conference begins.  (Your parents will have a cool seminar to attend that day, as well.)

Cicero, a Roman Philosopher, wrote this about friendship, 2,000 years ago: "What can be more delightful than to have some one to whom you can say everything with the same absolute confidence as to yourself?  Is not prosperity robbed of half its value if you have no one to share your joy?  On the other hand, misfortunes would be hard to bear if there were not some one to feel them even more acutely than yourself."

The day will be filled mostly with learning activities (read: fun ways to make friends) but there are actually 3 really cool speakers!  Ahmed Corbitt is one of them--he's the "Director of the New York Office of Public and International Affairs of The Church."  Talk about someone who knows all about making friends - he's doing it everyday for the Church! Dr. Rodriguez, one of SVU's best-loved teachers, is going to talk about "Boy World" and "Girl World" - and what the difference is.  (You'll have to come to see what that's all about.)  You'll also learn how to make friends without having to lower your standards, and how you and your friends can make the most of your teen years.

"In the face of a true friend a man sees as it were a second self."  (Cicero wrote that, too.)

There will be *learning activities* (which are fun), which will be all about helping youth build friendships and learn important leadership skills.

Ever made a VIDEO before? The afternoon will be spent in groups, making videos which will be posted on the LDSEHE.org website (so you can show off all your new friends to all your old ones back home.)

Be A Friend, by Edgar A. Guest

Be a friend. You don't need money:
Just a disposition sunny;
Just the wish to help another
Get along some way or other;
Just a kindly hand extended
Out to one who's unbefriended;
Just the will to give or lend,
This will make you someone's friend.

Wednesday MAY 27

Be there, my friend.

Living the gospel and being true to gospel principles is the key to true, lasting, triumphant friendship... Real friends share the gospel - the living of it and the loving of it.  No stronger bond or higher compliment can be given from one friend to another."   - Elder Holland (New Era, June 1998, 62)