Youth Conference

We had our Youth Conference this past weekend. This is an annual event in which the LDS youth in our stake get together to attend meetings to teach and lift them spiritually, participate in a day of service and have lots of fun.

This picture is from the talent show. Two of my sons and their friends played "air guitar" to "Are You Going to be my Girl?" by Jet. My son, Luke makes one dimentional guitars out of wood, paints them and sells them. He's pretty talented. He made the guitars in the picture. He is the lead "singer" with the scarf hanging out of his jacket pocket. Another son is in the top hat with the red tie.

Here is a guitar that my son made especially for Youth Conference. The theme this year was taken from the Book of Mormon. "Be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in good works" (Mosiah 5:15). There is a picture of a beefy bee being steadfast and immovable against the wages of sin.



On Thursday evening, the kids got together to register, do paper bag skits and have ice cream sundaes. Friday morning, they started early and headed out to do service. Some youth and leaders worked at the local food bank. Others worked at a nursing home and a third group went to The Christmas Connection. This is a place that offers free school supplies in August and a place to shop for Chrismas for children who might not be able to afford these things. After a day of service, there was a dance.

Saturday was the day prepared for talks from different leaders in the church. There was a talk about prayer by Bishop Larry Pierce. He has had some really amazing stories lately about how prayer and inspiration have helped him. One day he was working to move a huge and heavy portable building. He felt inspired to stop and say a prayer. Just about a minute after that, the building slipped and fell onto a concrete block crushing it to bits. The building was stopped by another block so luckily Larry was not crushed, too. A prayer was answered.

Another time recently, Bishop Pierce met with a young man in his ward who was struggling. He felt that God did not know that he existed and that his prayers were not heard. This young man did not like his job and had applied for another job but had not heard anything for a while. Before Bishop Pierce left, he asked if they could pray together that this young man would get his job. It wasn't 15 minutes later when someone at the store called telling this young man that he was hired. The Power of Prayer is real.

Another talk was given by Sister Couch. She spoke about cell phones and compared them to the still small voice of the Holy Ghost. She used the popular phrases from the different cell phone companies to show the kids how they needed to be in tune to hear the Holy Ghost. "Can you hear me now?" and "Dead Zones" were just two of the phrases she focused on. The kids loved it and could really relate.

There were talks about missionary work, the importance of keeping a journal and group dating to avoid dating pitfalls that can arise when teens begin single dating too early.

Then it was time for dinner. A wonderful spaghetti dinner was planned, followed by another dance and finally testimony meeting. Those are always emotional. The youth get up and bear testimony about whatever touches their heart to say. It was a very wonderful and very exhausting three days. I can't wait until next year.