Youth Conference!

So on Thursday, I wasn't super looking forward to YC. I dunno, I think my room preparatios and the two parties I was missing and whatever else appealed more to me, but whatever. However, when I arrived at the stake center, I wasn't feeling at all that same way.

For YC, we're split into groups of 6-7 girls and 6-7 boys with a couple for group leaders. My friends and I had tried to set up a train on the "who do you want in your group?" question so we'd end up all together and, against any previous results EVER, we ALL ended up together.

Now, there are downsides to this. That meant we were basically a gaurenteed clique and the boys and us were completely segregated. I only remember the name to the face of one boy, and that's because he had the unfortunate reputation of being the one boy at YC who didn't like showering. But on the upside, we were already all the best of friends and, well, gaurunteed a fantastic time together.

That picture was actually taken later that night, but still. These beautiful daughters of God from my group are (clockwise) Me, Heather Kearly, Jenny LaPlant, Marianne Grunnich, Sarah Langdon, and Tiffanie Abbot. Not the best picture of us all, but we were a bit busy when we actually looked presentable. ;)

After we met our group and our group leaders (Stacey Iseralson and her husband, brother Iseralson) and played some team-building games which, by the way, we creamed everyone at, it was about time to head to the Iseralson's for some late-night stuff. We watched the very end of "Raiders of the Last Arc" and we and the boys all tried to find something good on TV. We thought maybe we had found it with "Mad Money" just starting, but alas, this was not the great movie with Queen Latifa and crew, but a show on the economy. Not what a bunch of teenagers were looking for.

Later that night, when we got to the Barns' (where we slept...that's their last name, they didn't shove us into literal barns), we took the majority of our pictures. We stayed up until about 2, just talking and laughing and taking pictures. Also, Sister Barns suggested we "raid the fridge" and we definetly took her up on it. Our biggest scores were flavor-ice, those plastic tubes of frozen deliciousness, (she pretty much only had green left after we were done) and a gallon of chocolate milk. Next to Mom's chocolate-with-some-milk recipie, gallons of chocolate milk are the way to go.

The next day we went to the church for some workshops. They were okay, not as good as in the past, but not absolutely horrendus. Poor Heather, however, who got the most sleep of all of us, found them excellent opportunities for a nap. After the workshops were over we had lunch and started playing "The Sniper Game", where we were all assigned an ID card of someone else at YC. This game is supposed to help us meet other people, while at the same time having fun killing everyone off. Jenny was being very slack about finding her person, and the rest of us were killed within the first few minutes of lunch. That meant we had to surrender our assassination target to the one who sniped us- see, the point is to collect all the cards. When Jenny eventually did kill her person, she got herself practically an entire deck from his handy work before hand. Suddenly, protecting Jenny from anyone who even approached the table was the most entertaining part of lunch- we nearly made one little 14 year old wet his pants. D:
Jenny didn't win, by the way, and the game ended later that night.

We got the opportunity to go to "Feed my Starving Children" Friday, which is an amazing service place I highly reccomend. FMSC has volunteers pack rice, soy, veggies, and chicken flavoring into food bags, then to boxes, then to foreign countries. I don't remember the statistics, but it was really amazing how much good we all did. Plus, it was amazingly fun. They played peppy music the entire time (sometimes I was so busy dancing I almost forgot to dump in my chicken!) and the atmosphere is just so lively and lighthearted you can't help but have fun. Plus, the boy refilling all the rice buckets was very, very cute.

After FMSC, we went to Cantigny, a military museum park. Very interesting place...we took a tour through the museum and then got to hang out on the tanks around. See, this millionaire who had served in WWII decided to give his estate when he died to the purpose of enlightening others on Division 1 in the army. His family was able to get all sorts of really amazing things for the grounds and museum.

Unfortunately, this is the only picture I really have with the boys. That tall guy standing by Marianne and me is Adam. He hung out with us at Cantigny on account of the boys didn't want him around...seeing as he's the one who dislikes showers, it makes sense.

Later that night was the Variety show. We really, really didn't want to preform our ward's skit (the 4 awkward situations at a stake dance) but we ended up doing it. All our excuses ended up showing up, including Little Jenny Aguilair, who we adopted into our group that night after Sister Neilsen brought her around. The variety show (USO show, I mean. Sorry.) was pretty good. Nothing really amazing, as acts were dropping like flies. However, I can say that only two wards stuck up and did their required act- us, which amused the audience at least, and the fourth ward. Our sister ward was absolutely amazing...they pulled off a beautifully cheoreographed dance to "I'll Make a Man Out of You" from Mulan, which was both hilarious and beautiful at the same time. Ah! Love the fourthies! They even had matching shirts.

After the show, all the girls disapeared to go pretty themselves for the dance. It started out very lame, with literally only the fourth and sixth wards dancing (and even then, only the fourth ward and the sixth ward girls), but pretty soon more people joined in. It was just like a normal dance to me, except waaaay smaller. This year's YC was small to begin with, plus I'm used to at least tri-stake dances. Very spoiled little girl I am.

Probably the two highlights of the dance where when 'Cruella DeVil' started playing and, upset at the songchoice, a bunch of girls started a "Ride, Ride, Ride that Pony" game that lasted about five songs until the DJ put on chacha slide and yelled at us to go do the ChaCha Slide. I don't blame them- RRRtP is a great Girls Camp game, but not the best when the boys get involved too. ;)

Second highlight was when Jenessa told me to ask this short kid to dance. This poor kid had asked two other girls to dance, and they both turned him down. Seriously, if anyone turns you down, you don't want to dance with them anyway. But still, that's gotta hurt. So once it was finally a slow-song I had to practically run to catch him before he left the gym. We danced, and he was an absolute dear. Really fun to talk to and very nice- those girls missed out! But the best part was that I heard that, from that dance on, his mood lightened considerably and he stayed, asked other girls to dance, and even put on his sunglasses to be the star of his own life. hahaha or just look cool. ;)

Sister Iseralson was ridiculously cool after the dance ended. So she gets her picture here, with her husband. ;) We were all very bushed, and very hungry, so we begged her to take us to McD's. Lovingly, she did, and since I had money on me for some unknown reason, I decided to treat my girlies to icecream all around. Unfortunately, after Tiffanie and I were served, the icecream maker ran out of icecream. So we all just stood around talking while the McD's workers tried to fix it and flirted with us. One guy was so funny...kept coming out and trying to sell us burgers. Very fun. After about ten minutes the icecream thing finally worked again, so we got a free McFlurry for the wait (and cause they were still flirting). My icecream was ALREADY done by then, so I took one for the team and ate the flurry. Then, even after that, Stacey agreed to swing by Jenny's house and pick up Sydney White. Marianne hadn't seen it and we all wanted to, so we were gonna watch it. However, the day had creamed most everyone, so Marianne, little Jenny, and I were the only ones who lasted the whole thing.

(Only one day left, I promise!!) (Oh, and breaks aren't working anymore. :C)

Saturday started with more workshops. Heather had learned her lesson from the neck-pains she had the day before and chose to spend half a class asleep on my shoulder and the other half on Sarah's. Again, she had the most sleep, but oh well. I guess athletes are delicate. ;) Before we left, the leaders started a brand new game of Sniper that Sarah seemed to be more interested in than anyone. Marianne had to leave at the end of lunch, so with some careful playing and strategy, Sarah ended up with a huge amount of cards before lunch even ended.

For the day's activities we headed out to some park somewhere. We started out at this station with Marshmallow guns. Very fun indeed- our group combined with Jenessa's, and we saw firsthand how much fun it is when boys don't segregate...though I guess its really our fault we segregated. C'est La Vie; we probably had more fun than them anyway. ;)

After the marshmallow guns which were more fun to shoot at eachother than targets, we did the waterballoon launches. Our group ended up getting 2nd overall, which is very exciting.

After THAT, we headed to go play Capture the Flag. Ironically, the shift that went before us had an absolute blast and it was the highlight of their weekend. Our shift...notsomuch. Let's just say the bugs, scratches, brambles, heat, and whatever else went on wrong was a bigger deal than the game itself. I weep for our poor nurse.

When we all arrived back at the stake center, it was time to get ready for Bishop's Night and Testimony Meeting. Bishop's Night was a bit dragging after the park activities, but was still a very good lesson. Just wrong time? Anyway, to our great amusement, Bishop Dad let us try and nap for the 15 minutes he ended early with. Didn't work, unfortunately.

The Postprandial (look it up! C:) testimony meeting was deeeefinetly the best part of the weekend. Everyone I aksed agreed that it was THE BEST testimony meeting we've been to ever. Better than girls camp, better than efy, better than anything...and not just because as many boys went up and cried as girls.

The spirit was so strong in the chapel, I hope I never forget it. Everyone in the room felt it, I can promise you that, and those who were too shy or too afraid of running out of time to bear their testimony on the stand definetly did it in their hearts. The testimonies that were shared were so beautiful...different people bearing their souls in different ways than I'd heard before. It was simply a miracle of God.

It was nice to hear how YC had affected so many people in so many ways. Some people, like Jason Brown and Josh Nair, were especially touched by the "I am Worth Fighting For/A.R.M.Y-A Righteous Mormon Youth" theme, others, like Phil Jones and Aaron Davis were affected by the lessons, and others by other things. The thing that hit me, I said, was when President Duffield talked about the Purple Heart and its relation to Christ.

We were all able to witness something very special we all were able to witness in that remarkable testimony meeting. Hailey Snow had brought a friend to Youth Conference and although, knowing Hailey, she knew a good deal about the Church, her friend (Whitney) had never gone to an activity before. Whitney pushed Hailey up to bear her testimony, which she did on missionary work and the church and all. Whitney herself bore hers right after mine, starting with "I'm not a member of the church yet", thanking Hailey, Christ, and the Church, expressing her belief in the Book of Mormon which she hadn't read much of yet, her testimony of prophets who she didn't know all about yet, and her assurance of the truth of the church, touching on the difficulties ahead she would have going back to her nonreligious home, and finishing with a promise that she wanted to be baptised. When I asked Hailey at church on Sunday, she told me Whitney is starting discussions with the missionaries this week and still definetly wants to be baptised. If that isn't proof of the miracle of the truth of the gospel, its youth, and its youth programs, I don't know what is.

When we said the closing prayer, the number of sniffles going through the chapel was comprable only to Girls Camp. I opened my eyes at the end and Tiffanie and I said in pretty much unison, "I don't want to go home!" That was an anthem heard through the entire church as we wandered through the halls picking up our luggage. The spirit was too strong- no one at all wanted to return to the world. We had had too much fun, and our lives had changed too much for it really to last only a weekend. Christina Rosa and Jenny LaPlant held eachother and cried for at least ten minutes, but by then I had to go home so I don't know how long it took them to calm down. Sarah held herself together until she got home and realized it was over and then she cried.

It's not that we didn't want to see our family, sleep in our beds, and pet our pets. Its just that for two days, we had been surrounded by our best friends...including the three best friends anyone will ever have. YC this year was closer to the celestial kingdom, I feel, than any efy, church meeting, or camp I've ever been to.

And in case you don't believe it was a miracle weekend yet, Naperville was scheduled to get a tornado at six o'clock Thursday night, when all that showed was blue skies, blue skies, and the occasional drizzle. There wasn't even lightning until Saturday night, after we were all home in our beds.

He's good- He's really good.