It Was a Great Conference

I wish I could tell you that I loved being soaked clear through. I wish I could tell you that I smiled the entire time. I wish I could tell you that I was thrilled with the behavior of the kids and all of their leaders. I wish I could tell you that I wasn't too cold. I wish I could tell you that I love mosquitos.

What I can tell you is that the Goliath of wet and cold kicked my butt. But I stayed, so that was a small victory.

I can also tell you that all of those things that made this youth conference difficult were the same things that made it worthwhile.

It was a good experience. It was a good conference.

This was our ride for two days. Notice the pews on the "hay wagon." They came from an old church. Since there was no hay, the kids were calling it a "Pew Wagon." Spencer installed the shade umbrellas--turns out they were a godsend! Spencer and Kevin Bateman (the tractor and wagon owner) took turns as tractor drivers while I sat with the wards. (My bum hurts! :) )

This acreage at Mosida, on the southwest side of Utah Lake, is owned by the Church. It is mostly desert (part of it is farmed). They host "treks" there, so they had these handcarts on-site. We used them to haul our gear from the lodge to our campsites. This is Ashtyn and Michelle Winn.

This is our ward (Heritage 3rd ward). We wish we could have spent more time with them, but we were part of the stake committee, so we stayed on the hayride the entire time.

Here we are, ready to begin our conference. It's Thursday. See that patch of blue sky? Look carefully. It won't be there for long.

This is our 2nd ride of the day, Friday, with 2nd ward. We were caught in a DOWNPOUR! The tarps are covering everyone else in the ward, with just a few of us standing beneath umbrellas.

The hayride took the youth to the Valley of Elah, where Spencer taught the youth to throw tennis balls with a real sling at a life-size Goliath. This Goliath was painted on a 12-foot skid (from Boeing), which we planted three feet into the ground. It was painted by one of our stake youth, Michael Call, who is 17 years old.

This Goliath, painted by 16-year-old stake youth Jill Duncan, was posted near the lodge. We took pictures with each ward by this one after their hayride was finished. This picture was taken after our 2nd day, which was, thankfully, sunnier than Thursday. You can tell, because I'm seriously sunburned. :)

Here are some of our youth doing a Polynesian dance for our Saturday celebration activity (Ashtyn and Briana are at the far end. It turned out so good!

This is one of the short skits about facing our own Goliaths (Megan is trying to find the escape button as computer messages about "bad stuff" pop up in front of her). You can see the choir in the background.

We had hoped to be more in the open for this activity, but with rain threatening, we moved everyone under tarps. It turned out fine. We had a choir, the dancers, these skits (which were performed while the choir sang), and an activity where everyone got to do chimes together. Then the stake president spoke. We opened and closed with prayer. After the closing prayer we sang Becky's song (I taught the chorus to everyone on the hayride). It sounded so beautiful! The stake YW presidency wants to add this song to our conference DVD. Hooray for Becky for writing this wonderful song for us!