The Stake Young Women Presidency was in charge of the Stake Standards Night. This was by far the most difficult activity I have ever had to plan...in my life. BECAUSE, I was not supposed to be the one with the ideas. Our job was to use the Stake Youth Council to plan the meeting. We had to meet with them, help them come up with an idea, make the idea do-able, split the youth up so they were on a subcommittee with an adult leader, pray that everyone would follow through, and then have faith that it would all work out.
The Stake Young Men Presidency was amazing and helped us so much. The youth came up with an idea of doing the "Minefield of Life" and helping the youth understand that the standards can keep them safe. One of the counselors in the Stake YM had built a minefield on a smaller scale so he took the task of putting it together.
When we showed up at the Stake Center Wednesday night, this is what we found in both sections of the cultural hall:
He built some amazing minefields.
When the youth and their parents showed up, the Youth Council gave them a program with a colored dot on it (blue, yellow, red, or white) to each of the youth. We had a woman from our Stake, who went blind while serving her mission, talk to us about how she uses tools to keep herself safe. She likened that to the standards of the Church keeping the youth safe. She is an amazing woman.
The youth then were asked to leave the Chapel by color. The red dot people went first, blue dot next, etc. The youth committee gave them blindfolds and the youth went through the minefield blindfolded with someone who could see as their guide. When they have gone through, they rotated to the second section of the cultural hall and switched rolls. That way each youth was able to be blindfolded and be a guide.
While the youth were in the minefield, the Stake YM secretary presented a "How to parent ME" class to the parents of the youth. He had surveyed the youth in our stake to find out how they feel about their lives and how things are going. It was a very eye opening experience to hear how the kids want to be parented. It was something a lot of parents appreciated.
When the youth were finished, they came back into the Chapel where I gave a short wrap up talk and then the sister missionaries spoke for about 5 minutes (following up on a monthly challenge they had given our youth). The closing prayer was said and ice cream sandwiches were served as dessert.
It went really well and we had A TON of youth attend, a lot more than we had anticipated (YEAH). We were worried about doing a minefield for that many youth at once, but it worked out and everyone had great comments afterward. Ethan told me before the activity that he didn't think it would work and it didn't sound like it would be fun. Afterward he told me it went great and he had a lot of fun. YEAH!
