Youth Conference

On Good Friday weekend 2019, Casey and I set off to Mount Lemmon

in Tucson to put on our ward Youth Conference. 

This was our first rodeo of ever being in charge of a large

group of youth. I think we had a good mixture of

excitement and nerves. Mostly excitement. 

It was based off of an  April 2018 conference talk, 

Take the Holy Spirit as Your Guide, given by Elder Wilson.

"We cannot just do and think what others are doing and thinking;

we must live a guided life. We must each have our own hand on the iron rod".

Emphasis on Live a Guided Life.

We incorporated rockets as a fun symbol.

We, like rockets, have the potential to fly high and do great things.

We arrived to the lodge and devoured burgers and hot dogs!

Bishop DeWitt introduced our theme.
He brought the Liahona with him:)

Luckily, we have modern day Liahona's, the Book of Mormon

to help guide us these days.

We split them up into 4 teams/groups that they stayed in for the whole conference.

They played some team building games.

Then it was off to bed!
 The girls slept in the upstairs loft. The boys took to outdoor bunker cabins.

After tucking in the children, the adults snuck to the kitchen for late night games!

Morning devotional by sis. Couch, the YW president.

After breakfast we broke into our groups for the morning activity. 

Each group was to follow the iron rod (construction tape) with the help of their Liahona's (scriptures).

It would lead them to 4 different classes that taught a 

principal that would help them Live A Guided Life. 

Below, Sis. Whitmer taught about the Holy Ghost and following promptings.

Bro and Sis Cotter taught the importance of keeping the commandments.

During rotation, while following the iron rod, they came upon different

road blocks that stopped them in their tracks. With the help of their

scriptures, they could answer the "problem" and continue on the right path.

Covenants with Bro Dixon

Obedience with the Rudds.

Casey and I were busy running around taking care of logistics, blowing the whistle for rotations and what not. But I made sure to listen in on every class and boy, those leaders teaching were amazing.

The spirit was thick in the woods that morning. And bless their hearts for teaching the same class 4 different times!

We had lunch, then the fun part of the day happened!

And the end of each of their classes that morning, the teacher gave an essential piece

of an object to each group. They didn't know what it would build.

They soon learned it was to build a water rocket!

Those 4 gospel principles they learned are important to Living a Guided Life.

The same as those 4 rocket pieces they gathered.

Without them, their rockets may have worked.
But for sure with them, they would fly high!

They worked in their groups to build a high soaring water rocket!

Of course, Bro Goodman made sure to make it a friendly competition:)

Group 1:

(For my sake, I am writing names).
Anna Whitmer, Hyrum Whitehead, Clara (foreign exchange student), Macy Rudd,

Colter Clellan , Drew Haley

Group 2:
Collin Rudd, Sam Brown, Daxton Harris, Rylynn Dixon, Kelsey Barentine,

Karyn Whitehead, Brooke Barentine

Group 3:
Ian Fish, Tayton Harris, Conner Blaylock, Aysia Campbell, Amber Whitmer
Mallory Blau, Chloe Jackson

Group 4:
Amber Barentine, Rachel Blaylock, Gracie Western, Colton Dixon,

Kylie Menhenette, Tanner Brown, Ashton Fish

I must say, I was pretty impressed with their creativity!

After launching the rockets, they enjoyed some free time!
We had games they could play of they wanted to. 

human hungry, hungry hippos!

9 square.

Good ol' fashioned card games.

That night we had a wonderful devotional by President Harms.

Same bedtime routine as the previous night.

We had a quick breakfast and devotional.

Casey and I gave our closing remarks and I gave them this little handout.

A rocket eraser to put on top of a red scripture marking pencil.

What a wonderful learning experience for the both of us.

It was a totally different experience being able to

plan and execute this with Casey!

As fun as it was, the drive home is always a sigh of relief!