This week we went to youth conference! Cheyenne, Cali, and I left Wednesday afternoon and stayed until Saturday morning. We had youth conference at Wasatch Academy which is a boarding school for highschoolers and mostly empty in the summer. Kevin came up Thursday morning to do some classes on emotional intelligence and Bethany came with him. She was able to attend the classes, have lunch, and do some of the free-time activities before heading back home with her dad. I was on the food committee, which consisted of three of us cooking for 130ish people. So...I did a lot of food prep and food serving and food clean-up and thinking about what we needed to do next for FOOD. I got to slip into some of the other things and it was really fun when I did.

Chey and Cali, though, did the whole shebang. On Wednesday, they met their groups (a mix of ages and wards of about 20 kids each) and started planning skits. Then they had dinner, then a fireside. That night the kids played capture the flag in the dark with flashy bracelets in the grassy quad. When they were done, the kids all sat around Pres. Griffin and begged him for a story. That was one of my favorite things that happened! Totally unplanned but shows the personality of the youth we had there. Not one to miss a chance to teach, he told a story from the Bible. What a great parenting example. :)

On Thursday morning, they had the aforementioned classes, then lunch, then free time. In the afternoon, they rotated with their groups through different group games including one that involved a slip and slide and water balloons. That night they had another devotional and then a movie in the auditorium.

On Friday morning, everyone walked to the city pool which was reserved for our group for three hours. After lunch and some free time, the kids went through some more rotations with their groups playing more games. That afternoon we had a great devotional with returned mission presidents from Ukraine, dinner, and another devotional. After meeting again with their groups, they presented their skits and then we had a dance. Those kids really rocked out!

Saturday morning we packed up, watched a movie of the weekend, cheered for everyone, and drove on home. The kids had a great time. The adults were exhausted but happy how things turned out. I took some minutes to take a step back and think about how unique it is to be a member of this church and spend so many hours in a summer on planning and executing things for youth. It is a lot of time, but I find myself not bitter about it. Where else would I get so much opportunity to socialize not only with youth but also with so many other adults? I know names, stories, and personalities of twenty more people my own age. That I meet these people and create memories in the service of youth is actually an incredible opportunity and maybe not that strange at all. What else is life for if not to make connections with people and while you're at it, help make the world a better place? Serving in the church has not robbed me. On the contrary, it has and continues to make my life rich with opportunities and memories and people who become my friends.

Along those lines, I also realized that I find myself wanting to be the person who gives the great presentation or makes the profound statements that change people's lives in major ways that they can FEEL. But even though that's good, sometimes you just got to be the person who helps with the food. And that's important too. It's not as glamorous, but it makes everything else possible! Where would we be without the food?

So, back here on the home front, the reason Beth couldn't go to all of youth conference was because her play started their performances! She is a giraffe in Lion King Jr. Kevin and Mariah and Ben saw it Wednesday night and they said it was GREAT! Beth has really had a lot of fun with it.

Ben couldn't go to youth conference because it is for youth 14 to 18 and he's not old enough yet! He and Beth did go to Splash Summit with friends for a couple hours on Friday and Kevin got him to karate. He tells me he did some reading while I was gone. I sure hope so!

Mariah umpired for the end-of-season softball tournament this week. She spent two full days at the ball fields. They were long days for her and she's glad to have them behind her instead of in front of her!

Cheyenne umpired for half a day and worked at assisted living every other of her minutes that she wasn't at youth conference. She really gives them her heart and her all.

Calianne and Savannah worked at Funfinity this week more than anticipated because the owner's family (which is Savannah's best friend's family) lost a member of their immediate family in what they suspect was suicide. It's been very hard and sad, especially for Savannah, but really for all of us, because it creates so many desperate questions. How can a person make a decision like that? What can we do to help people better?

I wish I knew.