Youth Conference

Marty, along with some Youth Leaders and a few Young Men and Young Women, planned Youth Conference for our ward this year. Marty asked if I wanted to come along and I jumped at the opportunity. Marty is gone for a lot of different church activities so I try to come along with as many as possible. Brooklyn and Eliza stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Nowling and had a great time!
Youth Conference began Tuesday, June 22nd, in the early AM. Marty and I got to the church around 7 am to set things up and the youth began to arrive at 8 am. The theme for Youth Conference was B.O.O.T (Build Our Own Testimonies) Camp. Their were around 20 young men/young women and 6 adult leaders as well as 3 adults to help with the food.
We divided the youth out into platoons and had them change into their "gear" (camouflage T-shirt, bandanna, and dog tag). We ate breakfast, loaded their bags and other gear and started with a drill.
Tia Chapman made one amazing drill sergeant! I was impressed! She had these kids on their toes most of the time. The first drill was a series of commands to see if they could follow. The last one standing won for their platoon. Luckily enough, the orange platoon (our platoon) won! We one the privilege of eating lunch first.
Then we began our journey to Nephi, where we regrouped and traveled to our hiking spot. I must mention though that it's a good thing we prayed before we left. Marty was driving behind a diesel who knocked over a construction barrel and sent it straight into our lane. We were able to slow down enough to barely hit it, but it was lodged under our truck for a while until we could find an emergency pull off section. And the food committee was pulling a refrigerated trailer with a van of kids behind it when part of the cooler broke off and went down the road. It almost hit the van. Phew! It was a miracle no one was hurt.
Then we started our hike through Maple Canyon. It was so much different from what I expected. I thought everyone looked cool all lined up on the way to the trail head.
We hiked on rocks and climbed through all these rock formations. It was hard not to compare it a little to life with all the obstacles we have to go through with the ups and downs of life.
There was a rock somewhat like this where I stood up too fast and slammed my head right into it. It hurt so bad! My head is still tender from it.
There were parts where you had to use ropes to get up. There were a few boys that were very sweet to help others.
At the top of the hike, we had a little devotional by Bro. Carroll and then we headed down. The hardest part for these youth was the fact they couldn't play the whole time. It was Youth Conference afterall, so we had things planned for them to do. Part of it was fun and part of it was spiritual and educational.
After the hike, we ate lunch. We almost lost three youth in the mountain because they wouldn't listen to us. They went off hiking all by themselves after we asked them not to and we almost left them behind. This is when I started to get frustrated with a few of the young men for their lack of respect for adults. I caught myself frustrated with one boy several times the first day, until I had to take a step back and let someone else handle him. There were lots of good, well-respecting, youth as well, and for that I am very grateful.
Finally we arrived at our campsite at Palisades State Park, which is close to Manti, Utah. We were camped right along the lake and it was lots of fun. We set up camp and made sure to divide the boys from the girls of course. We let the youth play in the water and have free time. Then we ate dinner and had a devotional by Eric Hawker, who drove up from Salt Lake, just to talk to the youth. He gave a very inspiring talk about the Armor of God. Then it was off to bed, though we later found out that most of the boys didn't sleep at all.
Wednesday, was full of devotionals, seminars, games, competitions, water fun, eating, and later that night we attended the Mormon Miracle Pageant or the Manti Pageant. We were up late because the Pageant runs until about 11 pm. We got everyone back and off to bed. We waited up as leaders until around 1 am for the kids to got to bed and finally we crashed. Only to find out yet again that some kids waited up for us to fall asleep so they could sneak out again. Seriously? It was so frustrating but we had to sleep. Nothing bad happened, but it's the fact that we asked them not to. I was just more and more grateful that I don't have teenagers yet. I loved talking with them and learning more about them though. They are a fun, good group of young adults.
Tia had them doing push-ups when they didn't line up fast enough for roll call. On this particular day, we asked the youth to clean up all the trash they left everywhere and they said it was all clean. Then as leaders, we walked around and found LOTS more trash. I believe they did about 10 push-ups was all.
But then she had them run around the camp sites. It was all in fun, but hopefully they learned something too.
Thursday, we had one more devotional, a testimony meeting, and time to play in the water again. Then we headed back home. It was a fun time, but incredibly tiring!