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This devotional address entitled Faith, Family, and Friendship was given on February 6th of 2007 by Peter M. Johnson, then an assistant professor of accounting at BYU.

Good morning, my brothers and sisters. I began by telling you a little bit about myself and in a process sharing with you my testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the three key ingredients we need to ensure happiness and peace

in this life and a taste of what life would be like in our heavenly home.

I grew up in a Creenboro of New York City. New York City is a wonderful

place full of excitement and entertainment. And as a youth, I was heavily involved with rap

music and my brother and I belonged to a group called CBS. No, it's not the television station,

but the acronym CBS stood for Can't Be Stopped. We thought the name was cool.

We travel throughout New York City performing at wedding receptions, high school dances,

and block parties.

And during the summer months, we had different rap groups visit our neighborhood to perform

free concerts.

Most of the youth involved with rap visited the parks to listen and at time compete

with the other rap groups.

Often, however, these free concerts

attracted drug deals and promoted random violence.

It was during the summer of my 14th year

that a random violent event occurred,

which I will not go into at this time,

but it provided me an opportunity to leave

...