Editing Nico's Youth Group Years (section)

== The Summer Crisis (July–August 2022) ==

=== The Summer Retreat ===
From July 31 to August 11, 2022, the youth group traveled to Umhausen in Austria for their annual summer retreat (Sommerfreizeit). This trip would prove to be a turning point.

As a recently baptized member, Nico was placed into a prayer ministry team alongside his uncle Mimmo. Their task was to pray for people who came seeking spiritual help—individuals who arrived hoping their lives would change. What Nico witnessed disturbed him profoundly.

The team would pray in tongues over the seekers, then pronounce prophetic words: "You were hurt as a child," "I sense that you did this or that." These statements were, in Nico's assessment, pulled from thin air—guesses based on reading people's body language and emotional state, dressed up as divine revelation. Some statements went further, implying serious sins like abortion. Looking back, Nico calls the entire practice "godless"—a complete catastrophe that exploited vulnerable people. He knew at the time that it was wrong. He felt it in his conscience. But once again, he went along with it.

=== Breaking Up with Damaris ===
During the retreat, Nico's feelings for Damaris had faded. The attraction that had seemed so compelling months earlier was gone. On August 5, 2022, he ended the relationship. The conversation lasted about 45 minutes; both of them cried. But Nico's tears were not from heartbreak over Damaris—they were from the difficulty of the conversation itself. His emotional investment had already withdrawn.

Complicating matters, Nico had developed feelings for another girl at the retreat: Mari. He had formed a close connection with her and her friend Meggi during the trip, spending hours in deep conversation. When the situation with Damaris ended, the dynamic with Mari became awkward. Drama ensued—misunderstandings, perceived slights, apologies. Nico would later describe the Mari situation as a "soul tie" that caused him genuine pain, far more than the breakup with Damaris ever did.

=== The Aftermath ===
After the summer retreat, Nico did not want to return to the church. The prayer ministry experience had shaken him, and he felt the need to step back. He believed God was telling him to isolate himself—to spend months filling himself with Scripture rather than church activities.

But his uncle Mimmo intervened. "You need community," Mimmo told him. The isolation was not healthy; he had to come back. After several weeks of resistance, Nico relented. He returned to the youth group.

=== December 2022: The Transformation ===
By December 2022, a new pattern had emerged. Nico began going to the barber every week before youth group on Fridays. He went to the gym every day. His appearance, his style, his entire presentation underwent a transformation.

Why? In his own blunt assessment: "Youth group was always only about women. Always."

Whatever spiritual seeking had initially drawn him in—or been socially engineered into him—by the end of 2022, the primary motivation had shifted. The youth group was his social scene, his dating pool, his place to be seen. The theological questions would come later. For now, it was about something far more earthly.