youth conference

Thursday the youth from 7 stakes did service projects in the central Florida area. Our stake did a cleanup at Lake Louisa State Park. Really, one of the few good things about the water being lower than it has been in 100 years (according to the park ranger) is that a lot of trash in the lakes is now available. We had 110 youth plus adults. We worked for about an hour and a half. That is alot of cleanup and it looked great. Afterwards the kids played in the water and then we went to members homes to shower and change for games, dinner and a dance that night.
On Friday, we went to UCF. After check-in and room assignments, we had lunch and played games, including water games on the field. Then it was time to get ready for dinner, the keynote speaker and huge dance as now all 7 stakes were together.

On Saturday, after breakfast and getting our groups to class all the YW went to a nearby ward to receive training from Sister Dalton. The picture was actually taken on Friday night at the dance. I did ask her if she was willing to be on my blog. The training was inspiring. I hope that I will be diligent in following through with some of the good ideas that she suggested.

Sister Dalton takes notes at every church meeting she attends. As she is listening sometimes she has a prompting and she writes those down too and then puts a box around them. When she does her personal planning, of course, she refers to her notes.

An interesting fact about her...When she was introduced to us, we were told that she had completed 18 marathons. Later, she told us not to give her too much credit for that because she had five boys. Apparently they were all runners. She said that while they were running was the best time to talk with them!

The testimony meeting I attended at the end of youth conference was fabulous. President Allan Pratt presided. He told the youth that they had 60-90 seconds each to bear their testimonies and to please share their feelings about the gospel rather than their roommates. He had a timer at the back that kept them in the window he suggested. Many wonderful testimones were shared. I thought it was interesting today because my girls said that the best part of youth conference was the testimony meeting. Although they were in different meeting. Actually there were 8 testimony meetings held on campus to accomodate all of the kids. What an incredible experience.