Last Friday night I set out on my 72 hour journey as a chaperone for Youth Conference. We took 185 youth, 40 leaders, 4 charter buses and a lot of food with us to Kirtland, Ohio and back. In the beginning I was looking at it with the attitude of "I am giving my time to serve the youth." By the end of the trip my attitude was "I have been truly blessed and uplifted because I was able to come on this trip." It was one of the coolest trips I've ever taken.
Friday night we checked the youth in, feed them dinner, broke them into teams, played get to know you games, made a team flag, cheer and moto, practiced our theme song, listened to a talk then loaded the buses and pulled out at 11:30PM! We slept on the bus, that part was yucky. I lucked out and at least had my own seat, but that only made sleeping a little easier.
Saturday was more of a blur since I was so tired. We arrived, unpacked, ate had a morning side then began touring. We visited the Morely and Johnson farms. The Johnson farm is where Joseph Smith was tarred and feathered. It also is home to the "revelation room" one of the few places that we know Christ has appeared in this dispensation of time. The feeling in that room was so overwhelming and powerful. It was just so neat. That was the day I spent with my family. Although later that night I did have a pretty cool experience that some would look at as simple but it was powerful to me and hopefully my YW. One of my YW, who is shy and quiet lost her iphone. She was really upset and flustered. After doing a quick scan I knew it was going to be hard to find. But I had a thought "make this a teaching moment." So I said "Glendy, we need to say a pray and have faith that the Lord will help us find it." She was really nervous to pray and even asked for my help. After we prayer we went back to work. We looked for 10 minutes and I was getting nervous, it was dark and there were a lot of people but mostly because I needed her prayer to be answered so that she could have that experience with prayer. Finally the phone was found, I was so happy, as was she. The I said "Glendy when Heavenly Father answers a prayer we must thank Him immediately." So she said another prayer. It was beautiful and simple and yet so powerful.
That same night two other YW in my ward lost an earring (and even smaller thing to find.) They also knelt down to say a prayer and in less than 30 seconds the earring was found. It is by these small and simple things that great testimonies of our Father's love are forged.
I almost had to crawl on all four legs to get into bed that night, I was really THAT tired!
Sunday was my favorite day. We went to a grove/park area by Kirtland. President Checkets said a few words, then our the Bishop of each ward addressed His Youth. After that everyone was given a little packet with storied about people who lived in Kirtland and questions about the readers spirituality. The next 45 min all the youth spread out in the field and read the packet or scriptures or prayed and meditated. It was pretty powerful to look out and see the reverence and meditation of the youth. I was even able to have a few minutes to myself which was wonderful.
After solo time we went to Historic Kirtland.
While in Historic Kirtland we visited the visitors center where we watched a great movie. It was about Ann Whitney and her family's faith. It was all taken from her journal. I need to pick up my blogging for my future family to have a record of my life, especially those experiences where I feel closer to my Father in Heaven. Then we went to the Hotel where they now have some cool papers including the original word of wisdom documents, the picture from the book of Abraham and a 2nd edition Book of Mormon. That was pretty cool. We also saw the Ashery and Sawmill. While we were there the sister missionary giving us made the comment that "When we put the Lord first, everything else becomes a little easier." She was referencing all that the Whitney family sacrificed monetarily for the church. They put the Lord first and that sacrifice, although maybe not easy to us, was easy for them to do because they had put the Lord first. It made me think of my own life. I have a lot going on, as many of us do, and I struggle so much to keep up with it all. Then I had this moment of epiphany... do I put the Lord first? What is the things that are most important for me to get done every day. When I am being honest , it is unfortunately not reading my scriptures and saying my prayers. Those things may or may not get done daily and they may or may not be done with the full purpose of heart that they should be. I am working on putting Him first in my daily schedule, before anything else.
My favorite stop was of corse the Newel K. Whitney store. More specifically the School of the Prophets. The spirit was so strong there, another one of the few places we know that Christ has appeared. Since there were a lot of us who needed to get through I thought they might rush us. They were about to have us leave when I asked if we could sing "The Spirit of God." The spirit was so powerful in the room. After the song the Sis missionary told us how when she started her mission the mission president brought her in that room and told her about some of the things that happened in there. Then he gave her some time alone to tell the Lord what type of missionary she wanted to be. When she is done with her mission, she will go back to that room and report. She told the youth that they could take a moment to pray and tell the Lord what type of people they wanted to become. That was really neat. All the youth sat praying, pondering and crying. I love seeing the strength of these youth. It is truly humbling.
After historic Kirtland we had dinner, which I only mentioned because it was Chipotle and it was delicious!! Then we headed over to the temple where we took a group photo of all the kids... Almost 200 youth! That is so many for one stake. Then we took pictures by ward. I love these kids. I'm so blessed to be able to work with them.
After pictures were over we went into the temple for testimony meeting. It was one of the most remarkable experiences I have ever had. What a spirit that resided there with us in the temple, a place the early saints sacrificed so much to build, and a place where Christ has been. We started by singing the hymn the Spirit of God which was very powerful. That hymn was first sung at the Kirtland temple dedication and the words describe beautifully the joy of the saints to be a part of the restoration of the Gospel. After that every member of the stake presidency addressed the youth. They were followed by the testimonies of about 15 youth executives. After they shared there testimony President Checketts invited anyone who wanted to come bear their testimony to come fill in the pews where the choir would have sat. With that over half the youth stood up and began taking there place in line to share their testimonies with us. It was like a gust of wind that took your breath away, to know that so many of them wanted to share their faith in Christ with us.
As the youth bore powerful testimonies of Christ more and more youth took the stands. Youth I never would have guessed would get up were there now, waiting in line. It was a sight that as a leader was so fulfilling. We sacrifice so much time and effort and spent so much time on our knees praying for these youth and to see that they DO have a testimony of the Christ and they ARE trying their best is so rewarding. It makes it all work it.
As I listened to the testimonies my heart ached for some of these kids. I had no idea that things had gotten so much worse then when I was in high school. There were stories shared about being bullied, called gay, youth being told that they were so worthless they should take their own life. Friends and family committing suicide, loosing all of their friends because they held tight to their standards. Not having many friends because they were different. It literally broke my heart and I just wept for them. When did the world become such a cruel place? But I was filled with joy when I saw the strength the Lord had given to overcome the adversity in their lives. I felt the Love the savior had for them, and the youth knew He was their for them. That He loved them, and knew them and was there for them when they needed him. It was remarkable the strength of the youth. As scary of a place as this world is becoming the Lord really has/is saving his strongest most valiant spirits for last.
This amazing testimony meeting went on for a little over 4 hours. I am a fidgety person and I am an adult so you would think the youth would have had a hard time sitting still and being quiet through the whole meeting. They were quiet, attentive and respectful the whole time. It is a testimony meeting I will never forget and feel so blessed to have been apart of. At the end of the meeting we sang "Praise the Man" and EFY song for the closing prayer. It was the perfect way to end the meeting as the words were so powerful and the spirit so strong. It was one of the EFY songs we sand at my last EFY. I have such special powerful memories of singing that song beside my brother and feeling the spirit so strongly and knowing beyond any shadow of a doubt that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. That he restored the gospel of Christ in its fullness to the earth in this last dispensation of time. I remember the burning I felt throughout my whole body as the spirit testified to me that this church was true. I felt all of those feelings again as I remembered that 18 year old girl who was still trying to find herself. Such a powerful night.
I got a few pictures of the temple after testimony meeting. Notice the few blue specs that only occurred when I put my flash on. You can call them whatever you want, but I think they were angels. For surely there were several present that night at such a powerful meeting in such a sacred place.
We changed into our PJ's and hoped on to the bus, where we "slept" that night. We drove through the night to NJ so that we could go to six flags in the morning. My girls we nice enough to let me hang out with them at the park. I rode a few rides with them before I called it a day. I was running on fumes at that point. It was in the high 90's and I had a massive headache. I finally found a bench in the shade and just sat there for an hour or two. I was defeated! It had been a long weekend.
Look at my poor feet. They look like giant sausages. They don't normally look like that but I was hot, tired and retaining water like it was nobodies business. I had to get a picture since I had never seen my feet look like that before. I figure this will happen a lot during pregnancy?
We got home around 8 and I was in bed by 9:30. It was one of the most tiring, rewarding weekends ever and I can't think of another way I would have wanted to spend my labor day weekend. (Especially since Hubby was at home studying his brains out for the CFA.)
