Youth Conference 2012

A couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend our ward's youth conference. Their theme was "Living Waters" based on the scripture John 4:14, "But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." All of the activities for the conference had to do with water.

We met early Friday morning and traveled to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple so the youth could do baptisms for the dead. Next we took them to a water park to play for the afternoon. Then we drove up into the mountains to spend the night in a cabin. At the cabin we just let the youth (and leaders) play games and mostly just spend time getting to know each other better. In the morning, we had a devotional from the bishop. Then we packed everything up and headed to a lake where they could enjoy boating, tubing, canoeing and just playing in the water and sun.

Needless to say, the youth had a great time and the leaders came home exhausted. (Actually the leaders also had a great time and the youth might have been even more tired than we were.) I've been to plenty of combined mutual activities, but this was the first youth conference I've attended with our ward. After being with them for over 30 straight hours, I was definitely reminded how funny (i.e., twitterpated) youth at this age can be (especially the young women). But we have such great youth that I would do it all again without hesitation (except for the part where they blasted out the radio playing teenie-bopper music-I could definitely do without that part again!).

Luckily I got to come home and get plenty of rest since the rest of my little family had gone to Nevada for the Miller family reunion. Ross and Leah went with his mom and uncle. They stopped in Elko both ways to visit Grandma Mary. Leah was SO EXCITED to go to Grandma Miller's again. She still remembered our visit in April and was looking forward to seeing all the clocks again.

While in the Reno/Fallon area Ross got to go to a Reno Aces baseball game and "Hot August Nights" (a car show). At the reunion they got to go swimming and spend lots of time visiting with family. They had a great time, but when it was all done they were happy to be out of the car and back home again. And as much as I was enjoying the peace and quiet, it was nice for me to have them back too.