I can’t believe how wonderful Youth Conference was. It caught me off guard. I was very skeptacle, but now I would go so far as to say that it has exceeded EFY. The past few days were some of the best of my life. I think those 50 pages I didn’t think I’d be writing will end up written after all, but mostly as a private entry. A lot of what happened to me was very sacred. I’m gonna go write that private entry, but I’ll be back later to finish this up and fill you in.
Edit:
I’m back. The rest of this entry will be long, so I know most of you won’t have time to read it. For those of you curious about what exactly made the experience so powerful and wonderful, consider reading at least the end.
I almost didn’t go to Youth Conference cause none of my friends were going. I was really worried that I wouldn’t have a good time, and I was especially worried that I’d be asigned to a bad “family”. When I met my new temporary family I freaked out. Brother and Sister Perry introduced themselves as my parents, and they were so enthusiastic and I did not know them. I saw Kristin sitting there eying everyone, and my first reaction was most definately to just leave. So I did, I went waundering the halls hoping I’d run into someone I knew, a real friend instead of an assigned friend.
There was none to be found, however, because everyone had been put into their groups or new families for the weekend, and the families were designed to put strangers together and make sure friends weren’t in the same family. So I went back.
Food broke the ice, and we sat in a circle and introduced ourselves. The more the Perry’s talked the more comfortable we all felt. I think the biggest change for me happened, though, when President Spencer came in to set apart our new parents. Suddenly I realized they were serious about this. It wasn’t some scheme to suck the fun out of the trip, they wanted us to be a family.
After we got to know each other a little bit, I started having fun and feeling pretty good. Then I had a thought. Not knowing anybody was actually better. At EFY I didn’t know anybody. Also, I didn’t have to worry about impressing anyone or any of the other stuff I’d have to deal with if all my friends were with me. I could literally just be myself.
Our next task was to give each other new names. Thus the Joseph Fielding Smith family was born with mother Juliet and father Romeo, then myself (Cosmo), and Speedy, Rookie, Carmen SanDiego, Phoenix, Wilson, Caddy, Tex, Slim, and Zip. Now with new identities, we could be much more comfortable with eachother. I started talking with Caddy (Dallas) and Phoenix (Jason) and Carmen (Kristin) and Zip (Emily) and others, and started to get to know people. There was a quick introductory fireside, which was great and spiritual and all, but I couldn’t wait to get back to our family room.
We had to make a banner. This was lots of fun for me, and a chance to kinda use some art and interact with everyone and see how we all worked together. We chose a 70′s smilie face theme to our banner because Joseph Feilding Smith was the President in the early 70′s. Our slogan was “Always Strong, Always” and our banner was the coolest.
Before long we were in cars swapping stories. Caddy showed me his skater magazine and we discovered interest in the same music. It was a lot of fun, and before we knew it we were back together as a family at Camp Sol Crown, the coolest camp site ever.
We were given explicit instructions to follow the little lights to our tent. We were told it was a 40 min. hike. We started following the lights. We passed a tent after 2 min. We didn’t think it could be ours because we had 38 mins. to go, so we kept walking. It was a lot fun following the lights. We got really close as we talked, even linking arms and hands as we slid down steep hills and around mud puddles. Ultimately, however, we reached the end of the lights. No tent. We found a leader who said he’d lead us to our family tent (for the girls) and then to the guy’s tent on the other side of the camp grounds. The family tent was that first tent we had passed after 2 min. I don’t wish that we’d discovered that right away, because our hiking experience was a lot of fun, and it really kinda helped us bond together, even introducing themes and manerisms that would carry on to the next activities.
After family prayer we left the girls setteled in their tent and went to our camp. We got setteled in to our tent (7 people in a 6 man tent- we were like sardines) and then we talked until one in the morning. We really got to know eachother, and it was a lot of fun. Brother Perry is a cool guy. Anyway, some people went to sleep then, but Dallas and I couldn’t sleep so we wispered off to the side for a while. Phoenix overheard and joined into our talk about girls past, present, and future, and Slim joined in too since he didn’t have a pillow and couldn’t sleep either. Ultimately though they drifted off and Dallas and I needed a bathroom walk. We stayed out for a little bit, enjoying the quiet night. We went back for bugspray and then Slim joined us and we climbed up on this big hill. We listened to frogs and birds and talked. We thought it’d be nice to watch the sun rise from the top of that hill, and I still wish that at some point we had. But we didn’t, we went back at 3 and then fell asleep within the hour.
We got to the girls camp for breakfast and I was asked to give a devotional. I was going to give it on Daniel chapter 10, one of my favorites, but as I read it I felt impressed to instead turn to Moses chapter 7, my favorite passage of all scripture. We circled up and shared the passage (Moses 7:28-40) and talked about God and His infinate glory and power and righteousness. And then I talked about His compassion as our Father. He made us with His own hands. I bore fervant testimony that he has cried over each one of us, but also laughed and smiled as we have grown up here on Earth.
For breakfast we were each given one orange. We had 15 seconds to study it, and then we had to put them all into a big box and then try to find our orange. This had a very profound gospel message to it, but I’m tired of typing so you will have to come up with it yourself. Do think about the idea though of God knowing us each intimately and personally.
Through out Friday, went from station to station as a family. Our fist station was this really bizare tag like game. The next activity was this catapillar walk where we put our feet on these long ski like 2×4′s and tried to walk forwards then backwards. We did really well, and discovered that we had a lot of respect for eachother. At this point I think we realized we made a really good team.
The Zip line was lots of fun. It meant lots of talking. I went down really fast.
After that we became Prisoners of war at the next activity, which was my second favorite. We were all put into this prison with one wall that we could get over if we didn’t touch it. I really liked how our family sat down and counseled together, and then we started working through ideas and getting everyone across. Dallas was the only kid who could jump over. He did it once, but the other time fell pretty hard. With some brain power, we were able to get the whole family out of jail.
The next activity was my favorite activity. We were all blindfolded and then given a long rope that we all held on to. Our Mom was given the front of the rope and was not blindfolded. She lead us through the woods. It was actually kinda nice and relaxing cause we didn’t have to really think, we just followed. To make up for not seeing we talked a lot as if like bats our voices would tell us where we were. All of a sudden we were told to stop, and the rope was taken away. None of us knew where we were, so we instantly started to hold hands and link up together. Then we were told to follow our Mother by sound (she was given two sticks to hit together). This was really a cool experience. As one big human chain we followed her. Other leaders pretended to be bad influences as they made loud noises and tried to distract us. We became very determined to ignore and even to chase away those distractions and stay focused on the soft, consistant sound our Mom made. By the end of the trail we had been around trees and up hills and off road, and it had been the coolest experience, we were really a Family.
The next 5 or 6 activities were met with exhaustion, but let me say it was a fun day. We were really humbled up with hunger and with a constant reliance on eachother. Our group consistantly would link up or hold hands or something if we needed the support, like in the mine field activity.
Finally we were able to go back to camp and start cooking dutch oven beef stew. As it cooked we circled up and started going around and saying nice things about each person in our family. I acted as scibe and recorded everything on paper to give to them. They said things about me first, and it was so wonderful. I felt so special and important (as corny as that sounds) and I was really touched. As we went from person to person, I felt so close to everyone, like we were really a family. Dallas is the brother I wish everyone could have, and Emily is the kind of sister that makes you so proud. Kristin had the smile that melts you up . . . everyone was just so wonderful. We treated each other the way I wish I treated my real siblings even half of the time- we listened to each other. And Mom and Dad. I felt their love for me so much. Sister Perry possed the kinds of qualities that I hope the mother of my future children will have, and Brother Perry . . . I hope that I can one day be the kind of Dad that he was. Together they were stellar examples of what an eternal marriage should be, and I’m so grateful for that.
That night there was a fireside with amazing, inspiring speakers. Then we walked reverently back to the camp site where we all circled up and had a small Family testimony meeting by candle light (well kinda, it was windy). It was very spiritual and faith confirming. Afterwards we shared funny stories, which was so much fun. Back at the guys camp we talked for a little bit.
In the morning we went to breakfast and were fed some real food this time. Then we went off and heard a very spiritual, very powerful message from President Evans. We were then given the oportunity to go off and find a spot in the woods to 1. Identify the things about ourselves we hated, 2. Find specific ways to correct the percieved weaknesses, 3. Conduct a person conversation with God by 4. praying vocally, and then 5. read the contents of an envelope that was given to us. We were given over an hour for this solo experience, the public account of which I am about to severely edit because it was really a very personal, sacred event.
I went off down the road and found a spot where I was completely alone. I knelt down in the tall grass. The sun was above me, and I could not look up because it was too bright . . . There in the grass where I knelt, I proceeded to have a very intamate conversation with my Heavenly Parents . . . The veil of Heaven thinned and for the first time I realized that I missed them fiercely. My heart ached so much with it then. I longed for them . . .
I expressed appreciation for Jesus Christ, and closed in his name.
As soon as I was done praying, the whole atmosphere around me changed. I felt the veil restored. I opened my envelope and read a letter from my parents. It was touching. I speant a while reflecting on my experiences and reading Daniel chapter 10, and then I returned to camp when we were supposed to. I am so grateful for that personal “sacred grove” type experience. I now know exactly how possible it was for Joseph to see God the Father and His Son, and I believe that he did.
We gathered as a Youth for a testimony meeting. Despite the sun that scorched us there, I really felt the spirit as I had through out the conference. I bore my testimony on the experience I had just had during which I learned more about my personal role in the Plan of Salvation that I had known my whole life . . . As I have been preparing to leave home at the end of the summer, I have oft reflected on what it must have been like to leave Heaven and come here to Earth. I told them about the joys of Earth, but how I longed for the return home. I thanked the leaders for providing me with examples of how to return with Honor and continued my testimony of Jesus Christ and of his Gospel.
Youth Conference concluded with a feast and an exchange of contact information. I will miss my “family” so much, and I will always remember the experiences I had and the things I learned. As I reflect on Youth Conference I think of how it is like life. Before we were born we lived in Heaven with parents and siblings who loved us very much. Then we left and came here. We were given Earthly parents to guide us and teach us and take care of us, just like when we left home and came to Youth Conference we were given a new family. I still missed my old parents, though, and was grateful for the opportunity to return to them after I had endured the challenges and joys of Conference. So it is with life. I can’t wait to return home to my Father in Heaven with Honor.
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