Youth Conference!

This past weekend, Bryce and I had the awesome experience of being chaperones for our stake's Youth Conference. We were organized into families and we were the Ma and Pa. Each family was assigned a prophet and we had Heber J Grant. I cannot even describe how great this weekend was. I think we may have had more fun than the kids :) First of all, we were in beautiful, sunny Santa Barbara, on the UCSB campus. Seriously, right on the water. Then, we had some GREAT speakers. Some were EFY speakers and other were from the stake, but the were all fabulous. We played lots of great games, did a service project (making blankets for a children's hospital), had a dance, and ate some bomb food in the dinning hall.

Throughout the entire weekend, I was constantly impressed by the amazing youth we have in our stake. I remember being in the youth program myself, and our leaders would tell us how great we were. I never really believed that, but now that I'm a leader, I know it's really true! These kids face so many trials and yet they are clinging to the gospel for strength and guidance. It's so wonderul to see.

The funny thing was that some of the older kids at the conference were there when I was in the program :) The kids in our family were rad and we were able to have some great disscussions durring the family devotional time. Bryce and I feel so blessed to be serving in the youth program of the church. We truly enjoy every minute of it.

Making Blankets

Our Family :)

All the youth

Dancing the night away

Katie, busting a move

Crazy obstacle course (looks kinda funny, huh?)

Our Fam won!

Grubbing

I had to give a shout out to this guy. Bishop Parry is one of the gratest guys I know. He has been extremely involved with the youth and was always at every activity when I was a youth and he's still at it! He was my first bishop and he's always helping in any way possible. He has the biggest heart and worked so hard to make our stake's Cambodian branch become a ward. But BEST of all, 10 years ago, He baptized me into the church. Whenever I see him (which is quite often) I am pleasantly reminded of the best decision I ever made and all the blessings I have recieved by being a member :)