Heaven...Don't Miss it for the World

Youth Conference was a wonderful experience and I'm so glad I got to participate. No, I'm not still in Young Women and going to activities...I was in charge. Well sort of - the Young Single Adults were asked to be counselors for the tri-stake mock-EFY Youth Conference. The theme was "Heaven...Don't Miss it for the World" and only lasted 3 days so the EFY aspect of it was really pared down.
Each counselor was assigned groups of 10 youth randomly matched from the Harrisburg, Altoona, and York stakes. Our job was to corral, teach, and have fun. Believe me, I did all three...especially the third part. DAY 1 consisted of team games, banners and cheer-off, free time, and a dance. DAY 2 narrowed it down to classes, service project, more free time, and another dance. DAY 3 was the spiritual portion of the conference when we had devotionals and firesides followed by a testimony meeting.

Freetime started with a rather violent, unorganized game of "nail the guy near you as hard as you can with the ball" and ended in multiple games of dodgeball. Even the pink counselor Tshirts seemed to bring a sense of competition and caused us to be set against all of the youth. We won....sometimes. I loved working with the youth of many different backgrounds and it gave me a chance to break out of my own box a little bit. At the dances I loved to flit from group to group making sure everyone was having fun. Having all the line dances ingrained in my brain since my own youth dances there was no question who helped everyone learn them. And I loved it. I even used my matchmaker instincts so that every girl who looked lonely had at least one moment in the sun and one slowdance...thanks baby brother!

Being given multiple opportunities to teach on spiritual topics gave me confidence in my own knowledge on the gospel. I have never been the kind to willingly volunteer to comment in lessons at church because of the plethora of RMs around who know a WHOLE LOT more than me, but with a summer of study and confidence I've been giving myself a chance to try. My spiritual and physical strength were really tested this weekend and while the first excelled, the second was left in the dust and I got very sick. I appreciated having all the other counselors around me to be the examples and support that I needed. My group was the lucky one to have 10 extra youth so we had extra hormones sardined in one spot. That in itself was interesting. There were of course struggles, but the rewards outweighed them and the weekend was one that I really enjoyed.
We are amazing enough to even make the Mormon Times newspaper on July 26th. Check it out: http://www.mormontimes.com/mormon_voices/mormon_experience/?id=9840