Youth Conference {Little Deer Creek}

A couple weeks ago we finished our summer youth camps by doing Youth Conference up Midway area. Our theme this year was "True Believers". We wanted to teach the youth the importance of believing and KNOWING about Christ. We started our conference by going tubing down the Provo River. It took a couple hours from start to finish but it was lots of fun even if we did get stuck in every tree or bush along the side. Being 33 weeks pregnant at the time, everyone was a little worried about me floating down the river. If they didn't have rules against it I wasn't going to miss it! I am sure all the leaders were second guessing me going though because when we got to the end and had to get out, I missed the shallow part and kept floating down the river to fend for myself and have to swim in swift waters to the opposite shore for safety. Definitely an awkward experience when you have no sense to your center of gravity but I wasn't worried and I made it safely out of the water... eventually! The first day we taught them about agency and how important it is that we get to choose what we believe and later that night we taught them about the apostasy.

 The next day we talked about the Restoration and the importance of Joseph Smith. We took them on a "walk" through Cascade Springs and played some fun group activities teaching them about "where they can find the right things to believe in" and teaching them more about the 13 Articles of Faith. The rest of the night, until our yummy chicken taco dinner and testimony meeting, they had free time to play. Of course that included all sorts of mischief like water fights and taking turns rolling each other down the hill in empty garbage cans. The next morning it was time to go home. They cleaned up camp and then all us leaders and youth met at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple to close our weekend together. We talked about the blessings of believing in Christ and the ultimate place on this Earth to learn about Him being the Temple and also how important is to not lose sight of the Temple and get distracted by the worldy things around us. 

With us changing plans from Bear Lake to Little Deer Creek a month before I would say this Youth Conference turned out great! We had such a great group of youth so it didn't matter where we were at. As leaders is was a bittersweet experience for us all. Not only could Nikki and I not sleepover because of babies, but it was our last camp before Hollie was getting released! Hollie makes everything more fun and she is missed tremendously now! Definitely won't be the same without her next year.