Becoming a Teacher and first dance

Will turns 14 in a month.  He is such an incredible young man. The other day I was nagging and lecturing him about something and he just said, "I understand.  I'll do better.  I'm sorry."  He takes criticism in such a calm and peaceful way.  When Mike deployed we knew that Will would either have to wait to get ordained to a teacher until Mike returned or have Grandpa Richards do it.  We left the decision up to him.  Originally, he would only have to wait about a month but then the church made the change so that in January he could move up to the teacher's quorum.  Will isn't terribly decisive.  He's thought about his decision for months.  We have had multiple ward leaders call to see if he was ready to have his interview and each time I've told them that Will hadn't decided what he wanted to do yet but when he did, I'd let them know.  Will had mostly decided that he wanted to wait for Mike to get back and then Grandpa Richards ended up having to leave for the next six weeks because of a family emergency so that solidified his decision.  

I was happy to give Will the time to consider his options and know his own feelings.  I like to see him taking charge of his own spiritual progression and not just going with what everyone else wants him to do.  I hope this time he had to think and pray will help him in the future when he has even bigger decisions to make.

Even though he is not ordained a teacher yet, he still participates in the teacher's quorum on Sundays.  He helps the Deacons pass the sacrament but goes to the teacher's quorum classes and activities.  He went to his first dance, which was super weird for me.  He was really nervous and I had to teach him how to slow dance.  I sent him off and waited for his return.  I had a friend who attended the dance and got a text from her later saying that Will danced every dance and was totally natural.  I also had a girl in the ward who is 15 tell me that she actually didn't know Will was only 13 because he acted so much older.  She said when he asked her to dance he didn't act nervous or awkward at all and talked to her like he always did at church.  His report was that he asked a girl to dance every dance even though he was nervous and didn't want to.  He waited to see who didn't get asked and then would ask the closest girl to him who wasn't dancing to dance.  I was so proud of him.  It makes me proud and a little sad that he is already at this point in his life.  Of course, it's natural and good, but it's just one more step towards dating and I'm not ready for that!  I'd also like to point out that he is soooo much taller than me already!  I'm so glad he let me snap a picture because I love having this memory of teaching him how to dance for his first dance (I asked his permission first and told him I would only post it here since so few people read the blog and therefore, not many people would see).