The Stake leaders drove up Thursday and got there around noon so we could set things up. We put ward assignments on the doors of the yurts, cabins, hotel rooms, and bunkhouse rooms. We got the schedule posted and made sure that everything was ready for people to arrive.
Around 3 p.m. the wards began to arrive. The boys were in the yurts and cabins outside while the girls were in the hotel rooms and the bunkhouse.
Our ward had the bunkhouse on the left (large one) and the smallest one on the right. Ethan stayed in the one on the right with 2 other boys.
It was super windy when we met in the Amphitheater for our first speaker, Del Parson. He is the LDS artist that did the Christ in a Red Robe, Christ knocking on the door and Christ with the lamb paintings. He had a great story and showed us his paintings while telling us the story of how he gets the inspiration and models for them. It was neat to hear how the Church commissions paintings and how they go about making sure the painting is what they want. It was also neat to hear Brother Parson's story. He was asked by the Church to paint a picture of what the Spirit World looks like. He asked them what they wanted and they said "We don't know. We haven't been there before." So he set out to paint a portrait of what it would be like for his wife to greet him in the Spirit World. Not long after he began the painting, his wife and daughter were killed in a car accident. After the funeral, his wife appeared to his brother one night and gave him four things to tell to Brother Parson: 1) the Church is true, 2) she loved him, 3) he needed to remarry and 4) I can't remember the last one. It was after this experience that he was humble enough to paint the Christ in a Red Robe and the others. It was great to hear his testimony. I met him afterward and he is such a humble man.
We had dinner (which wasn't very good, but oh well) and then we had a dance. The Youth Committee wanted the dance on the first night so they wouldn't stink. ;)
The boys from our ward hid behind a tree during the dance, haha! They enjoyed each other's company. But girls found them and asked them to dance.
Their hiding place:
It was a girls choice and Ethan was asked to dance.
The kids were having so much fun (minus the boys in our ward who went inside and played cards) that we decided to let them keep dancing. So it went on until about 10:30 before we had a closing prayer and sent them to bed.
The YM leaders were outside in the yurts, cabins and some campers they pulled up while the YW leaders were inside in the Great Room. We were on couches or cots. While we were getting ready for bed one of the leaders saw a mouse! The girls were nervous about the mice so we (and by "we" I mean one of the other YW leaders) caught the mouse and released it outside. But he wasn't alone. We finally gave up trying to catch them all and went to bed. But the wind was crazy and we didn't get much sleep.
The next morning we got ready, ate breakfast, had a devotional and then started rotations. I will explain the rotations by showing pictures of Ethan as he rotated around.
Ethan went to the ropes course first. The facility had a ropes course but it wasn't that great so the Stake YM presidency had to do some designing and figure out how to make it work. They played some games, did a spider web where they had to pass people through one at a time, then they waited until it was their turn on the swinging log.
They ended with the human knot. It was fun to watch them. Notice that Ethan is wearing PANTS! He was not happy about this but the Stake President wanted the youth to wear pants the whole time. I had to go and buy some because he hates pants! Some kids were wearing shorts over their pants in rebellion. Haha!
The next rotation Ethan went to was games. They played a bunch of different games. Ethan's favorite was Rock, Paper Scissors Biggest Fan!
In that game, you play someone Rock, Paper, Scissors and then the loser becomes the winner's biggest fan and cheers for them as they battle others. Soon there are 2 groups of "biggest fans" and the winner wins everything. It was hilarious to watch.
They also played a hula hoop game and it was a lot of fun to watch. This was Ethan's favorite rotation!
We then had lunch and the kids got some free time. Our ward played cards and it was hilarious to watch. Other kids played pool and Foosball. I couldn't believe how well they kept themselves entertained with all the stuff that was provided. There were board games and card games. I loved sitting back and watching the kids play.
The first rotation after lunch that Ethan did was the one the Stake YW were in charge of. This was the one we had to frantically change on Monday. It consisted of 4 stations. The first station was the Parable of the Gems where they learned about gaining spiritual gems in the scriptures. They had to find gems and then solve a puzzle.
The next station was "Magic Shoes" where they had to cross the filthy water. Ethan and his teammate were really quick with this one.
The next station was using a Leap of Faith over the seats in the amphitheater. It was fun to watch them hop all over while gathering puzzle pieces.
The last station was putting together the puzzle. Ethan's group was super fast so they won handily! But it also meant that they had to sit around until the other teams were finished. We gave them some gummy frogs (get it, leap of faith and frogs?!) so they had something to snack on while they waited.
It was then time for Ethan to go to his last rotation which was my counselor who did a spiritual hike. With the wind and the cold, we decided to forget the hike and have the spiritual part in the Lodge. It worked out well and Ethan thought it was a great rotation.
The kids had free time and then dinner. After dinner we had our last speaker who was Sister Cox who was my seminary teacher my senior year of high school. Her name was Oveson when I had her. She did a great job teaching the youth about how they need to make sure they are searching from good places and how they need to make sure they are doing what is right. She also taught them how to answer any question using The Plan. She wasn't afraid to call kids up out of the audience to have them help her and she put them on the spot. It was great to see the lightbulb go on in their head when they figured things out.
We had testimony meeting afterward and it was very windy and cold! But that didn't stop the youth from bearing their testimony for an hour. It was a great meeting and I was very impressed with the youth.
On the schedule we had given the wards 1 1/2 hours to plan their own things with their youth after testimony meeting. When we went to separate it became obvious that the wards didn't have anything planned so we decided to have another dance. The kids, minus Ethan, were so excited! It was cold and windy but a blast.
We slept a little better that night, ate breakfast, packed up and then had a morning side with our Stake President. When he finished talking to the youth about missionary work, everyone drove home.
It was a lot of fun and I think the kids had a great time...and it's done!
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