Multi-Stake Youth Conference!

After Girl's Camp I got a little breather and then got ready for the Multi-Stake Youth Conference. President Monson first met with some of the stake presidents in the area and told them his idea for this big youth conference. They said, "Great, I think we can pull something together for 2012." And he said that wasn't good enough--it needed to be this year, so they put this event together in 6 months. There were about 2,000 people who attended, 300 of which were adult leaders and the rest were youth. 11 stakes participated from the surrounding areas. They said that everybody was within a 2-hour radius of the Spokane Stake Center. I was surprised that there were so many LDS youth! And these were just the kids that were able to come. (Less than half of our kids were able to go.)

The first day (Friday) was mostly a fun day of playing games, get-to-know-you activities, and a dance and more games in the evening. They played a number of field games that were directed by a man with a mic and he stood on a lift so everybody could see him. I was amazed that he could entertain 1,700 kids for a few hours! He did a great job and had watching/joining the games too.




After the field games we went to dinner, and then straight into the dance. There were three large rooms in the conference center that we used. The one was for the dance with a regular DJ and music.


The next was a game room with lots of little odd games like:
Put the lamp shade on your head with the fishing pole while your blind-folded. I think that was more fun to watch than to do.


Stack 3 golf balls, flick the raisin boxes out from under the water bottles, and much more!


The second day was a little more serious. We met at a different conference center and had a presentation about some of the soldiers serving our country. There were a few soldiers of various rank who told their own stories, and then others who told the stories of fallen soldiers they knew. The mother of one soldier in particular came to tell us the story of her son who had died in combat, and it was very moving. At the end of the presentation we made Christmas and Thanksgiving cards to give to the Red Cross for the soldiers serving abroad.




We had lunch at the park and then headed back to the auditorium for the closing ceremonies. In the months leading up to this conference we all learned some songs so we could sing them here to each other. Every two stakes combined and sang a song, and then the entire conference learned a second song that we all sang together. It was neat to hear so many voices combining and singing those beautiful songs about Christ and being strong and pure.




I'm excited for future events like this. One of the stake presidents told me he thought they would probably be doing this about every other year now. It was a great success and I know the kids had a lot of good experiences. I hope I still get to serve with the youth when we move!