Youth Conference

This last weekend we went to the Ward Youth Conference, since Kyle is an advisor in the Priest Quorum. It was quite interesting to do with a 1-year-old. It's a lot different than the Youth Conferences I remember. It was just the ward. And there were no dances. Weird huh? And there were about 35 youth. Anyway...We went down to Fairview Utah, where a member in the ward has a ranch house with horses and other ranch stuff.

So, the girls slept in the house, and the boys and other leaders slept outside, in tents or just outside. So, we did a little camping for the weekend.

The first day they all went to the Temple to do baptisms, came back for lunch, then we went to Genoa, Ut for a Service Project. We cleaned up a playground for an elementary school for children that are illegal immigrants, I think. They were all spanish kids. And the bus said "Migrant bus." Anyway, the playground was all overgrown weeds, and it was dirty and sad. After we were done with it, it was beautiful. They also gave us Horchata with strawberries in it....yummy.




Next day we went to a state park...basically a lake. They had the kids in groups and they had them build boats like Nephi, using only materials provided like inner tubes, doors, and rope. They had a gimp person that couldn't help at all, a murmurer like Leman and Lemuel, and a blind person. It was really fun to watch them build these boats. Then they had to go a certain distance in the water and come back without getting certain items wet. That was fun. Then they had all those inner tubes and they rented a few canoes and just played out in the water for a few hours.




That night after dinner they had the kids do a blind walk. The night before they did this where certain people were leaders and they had to lead the groups in a field blindfolded, and they had to trust and listen and have faith. So, this blind walk was different because they had them walk over a mile, blindfolded, to symbolize the Nephites in 3 days of darkness before Christ came, to help the youth get a feel for a long period of time in darkness. They had people like the Bishop, YW president, and other leaders like that leading each group, and they could only lead using their voices. When they got to the top, they shined a flashlight in their eyes, with the blindfolds on, to show that it was a special place. Then they took off everyone's blindfolds and they had campfires and the bishop spoke about coming to Christ. Then they had a testimony meeting and all but 2 of the youth bore their testimonies.
Saturday we just packed up, ate breakfast, and Kyle gave a devotional/spiritual thought about overcoming temptations, and obedience with exactness. He used Teancum as an example who stabbed Amaleki in the heart, killed him, and then stabbed Ammoron near the heart, which didn't kill him, and the guard woke up and killed Teancum. So, if you just skirt around a temptation, it can come back easier. But if you stop it right away, it's less likely to come back. And that they need to be proactive in being examples and for standing up for what is right.
Anyway, this is a long post, but I was very touched by the strength of the spirits and testimonies of these kids. I am so glad we got to go too. I really love our ward.