Youth Conference 2013 Stand Ye In Holy Places

 With Justin and I both serving the youth of our Church Ward we were able to help plan and carry out a Youth Conference this year.  The theme was Stand Ye In Holy Places.  We started out with a nice dinner where all were dressed up.  They each had a menu with boxes on it for three courses and choices for each course.  The problem was that the choices were scripture references.  They didn't have scriptures or phones to look up scriptures at dinner.  They were given a list of the scriptures on the back of their invitation, but weren't told how important they would be for their happiness at dinner...  It was pretty humorous to see some people get it just right, and some people just get silverware for one course.  No food.  Or just food no silverware.  Overall it was really fun to watch and I think it got our point across.  Be prepared for your day, as you don't know what will be put before you. 

 Then we had a guest speaker who had just come
 home from a deployment to Afghanistan.  He discussed with the youth about how you don't always have a choice of where you physically are, but how you can change wherever you are into a holy place by the things you choose to look at, and the things you fill your time with.  He chose to put pictures of his family, Christ, and the Temple where he could look at them everyday.  He chose to read his scriptures as protection everyday, and also chose to serve those around him in his free time.  Those choices lead to him having a holy place to be even in a war zone.  It was a very touching fireside.  One of the best quotes of the night was "If you fail to prepare, then you prepare to Fail."  I really think that the youth felt the Holy Spirit testify to them the truthfulness of his words.
      Of course the whole time I was sitting holding my Hero's hand and remembering when he had some similar choices to make in Iraq.  Being a Marine, Justin had many many times even here in the states that he HAD to be in a room or place that was "unholy" because of the people he needed to be with and their choices of entertainment and language.  Justin chose to live far away from the base not only to keep me in close proximity to his family for the many times he was gone, but also so that he could forget those unholy things and focus on our Christ centered home.  No we are and were not perfect, but we do try to keep our home a place where the Spirit can dwell and we can feel peace.  He chose on his first deployment to never leave without his Book of Mormon in his pocket.  Never.  He read it three times while deployed for seven months.  He chose to have soothing Tabernacle Choir music on his Ipod (Thanks to the Gardner's and Walker's!) so that he could listen to that and be removed from certain situations and comforted.  I am so blessed to be married to such a wonderful example :)

After the speaker, I got some pictures with my Advisor and some of my favorite Laurels who are moving on into the Relief Society program. 

Matching Braces!!!!

The next day we had a mixed up breakfast.  We had pointed out to them the night before, how we had given them a list of the scriptures for the next day, so that they could order correctly.  It was much better and most of the kids got it right on the first try.  We then split into three groups and took turns going to three different areas in the Ogden City area.  The first one we went to was downtown.  We wanted to be in some chaos and had one of our Seniors talk to the youth about how they can be in chaos and create a holy place, such as school.  It was awesome.  Our youth are really strong and know how to be in the world and not of the world.  Here is a picture of our group by a cool sign. 

I really liked this quote:

 Then we went to a nature walk and our first councilor in the bishopric spoke to the youth about nature and how nature and the mountains can be holy.
The last stop was the Ogden temple grounds.  The Temple is currently under construction so they had a trailer set up and an couple told us about the construction and showed us some pictures of how it will look when completed.  It was really neat.   Then we all got together at a park and played some Frisbee and ate lunch.  We surprised the kids at the end with 4 hours at Boondocks!  It is a fun center where you can do go-carts, laser tag, bowling, mini golf, batting cages and arcade games.  It was so fun!  Trust me I was exhausted by the end of the night.  I love serving the youth and was so glad that we could be a part of this special conference!