What an AWESOME Youth Conference we experienced this past weekend.
We left Mesa on Thursday morning, May 30th and
arrived at the NAU Institute Building for the beginning of the activities.
The theme and scripture:
The youth in the stake were assigned to "tribes" (families).
Neither the youth nor the parents knew who they would be in their tribe
until we arrived at the conference.
Bennett's Tribe
(cousin Carie was also in this group)
Clark's Tribe
(cousin Matthew was in this group, too!)
Bennett's friend Byron, who is not a member of our church, was able to attend Youth Conference.
Bennett met Byron in English class.
They started talking and Bennett gave him a Book of Mormon with his testimony written inside
and invited him to attend Mutual.
Since then, Byron has attended mutual regularly, church and Mountain Man.
We are hopeful that Byron will want to be baptized soon.
Someday I will have to blog the entire experience, but for now I will just say that
Bennett is an amazing friend and missionary!
Lunch could not come soon enough for Clark!
Lucky for him we bought a sandwich in Flagstaff,
This growing boy can't go too long without food.
After lunch each tribe was given a service project to complete.
Bennett's group raked up pine needles and debris at the Institute Building.
That evening's activity was "Did You Know?"
Clark and Carie were called up on stage...
"Did you know that Clark and Carie can run fast and placed in the state track meet?"
Clark and Carie then had to tie their feet together and run against another friend.
After that race was over, they called Curt up to race Clark.
Curt totally cheated and took off early!
It didn't matter because Clark blew right by him!
The next day we rotated through several guest speakers.
They were awesome!
Mark Ogletree
(BYU professor and former Mountain View Seminary teacher)
Brooke White
(5th place on American Idol a few seasons ago and from Mesa)
Ed Lameroux
(a great local speaker and presenter)
Al Fox
(a recent convert, "tattooed Mormon" who has been all over Facebook and written about in LDS Living)
Don Bluth
(worked for Disney as an animator and has been involved in the production of many Disney movies)
Elder and Sister Groberg
(wrote the book "The Other Side of Heaven" and a former General Authority,
Temple President, Mission President and Kristin's uncle)
Byron meeting Brooke White
Clark and Christian loved Al Fox!
So did we!
Curt with Don Bluth
There was also a "Fear Factor" Challenge.
We were able to help with Clark's rotation and Curt was in his element!
Clark got lucky and only had to eat a lemon!
(it could have been chocolate covered cricket, meal worm or jalapeno spam!)
Youth Conference wouldn't be complete without a dance!
Clark earned $30 for dancing with his Mom!
(I had to deduct $5.00 when he pinched my love handles during the slow song!)
The last morning we were honored to hear from Christian and Stephanie Nielson.
We love them and are so blessed to call them our friends!
Curt was their Bishop when they were involved in their airplane accident.
We have had a front row seat to the tender mercies and miracles that have since occurred...
from feeling prompted to meet Stephanie's family in Provo
while we were on vacation 3 weeks before the accident,
powerful priesthood blessings,
a sacred ward and neighborhood fast two days after the accident,
and witnessing countless acts of service on their behalf.
We loved seeing them and hearing them speak!
It was a special treat being with our boys at such a wonderful event!
Here are just a few sentiments about the conference...
Bennett was speechless!
What a great weekend!
To listen to the awesome speakers visit the conference website:
