Ward Youth Conference

Jeff and I were called to be the Ward Youth Conference Chairpersons a few weeks ago and after lots of planning and coordinating, it all came together into a great event this past weekend.  Before youth conference, Jeff and I had never officially met even one of the youth, but we quickly found out we’ve got some great young people in our ward.  The girls were so good with Luke and the boys were all such gentlemen.  We spent some time getting to know the leaders during the planning and they are all so fun.

Jeff, Luke, and I headed straight from the conference in Mesa to Thanksgiving in California so after we had packed enough for both trips, we drove down to Kurt and Noelle Fisher’s (Jeff’s aunt and uncle) house in Mesa on Friday afternoon.  We arrived almost 3 hours before the youth and leaders so we got to spend some time visiting with the family.  They are so fun.  We went down early with the intention of helping to set up, but Kurt and Noelle already pretty much had everything covered.  We owe them big!  They found all of the ward members homes for the kids to sleep at, housed several youth themselves, and shopped for and cooked both dinner and breakfast (both delicious!).

The conference went down like this: Friday night, after a tasty dinner of pulled pork sandwiches, we went to a nearby church for a wonderful fireside by Mark Mabry, the photographer who took the Reflections of Christ pictures.  Brother Mabry happens to be Bishop Gilliland’s cousin so we were privileged to see some of his pictures and hear him speak.  He told some incredible stories.  The Spirit was very strong.  

Unfortunately, Luke was being kept up way past his bedtime and we forgot the formula so he was tired and hungry and teething.  In his unhappy state, he refused to nurse and he was crying pretty hard by the time we got back to the house.

It didn’t take long for Jeff and I to realize that this conference was much more difficult with a (almost) 5 month old in tow.  It was go go go from activity to activity and changing him, feeding him, and making sure he got enough sleep was no easy task.  Our arms and backs got tired from all of the times we had to walk or stand while holding him in one arm and feeding him a bottle with the other.  The poor little guy was exhausted after the day and a half of excitement.  Despite the difficulty, it was a great experience.

On Saturday morning, we all met back at the Fisher’s for breakfast, then drove to the site of the soon-to-be-constructed Gilbert Temple to appreciate the sacredness of the grounds.  From there, we headed to the Mesa Temple Visitors’ Center, where we enjoyed a nice devotional from Bishop Gilliland, the Christus presentation, a tour of the temple grounds, and a film called How Rare a Possession, in which a man finds a copy of the Book of Mormon without a title page and gains a testimony of it before he knows what it is.  After that, we went to lunch at In-N-Out and to a roller skating rink.  Roller skating was chosen as the activity because it is something the kids never get to do at home.  It’s a little sad how little there is to do in Flagstaff!  Jeff, Luke, and I cut out after lunch and missed skating so we could get on our way to California.

 Enjoying the tour of the beautiful Mesa Temple grounds.  Luke is eating, of course.

 At In-N-Out.  Notice the flying bottle in the bottom right corner.  Luke had just knocked it out of his mouth with impressive force.

This picture was taken right after we left for California.

We stopped to say hi to Aunt Linda in Gilbert first.  She invited her kids in the area (Mike, Danielle, and Toni) and their families over and we all had a great visit in her beautiful house.  Jeff got to watch football on a big screen TV, Luke got a nap, and Aunt Linda bought Jeff and Luke matching ties at a boy scouts fund raiser in the neighborhood and fed us some fabulous food before we got on our way.  It was so nice to spend some time with family since we are deprived of relatives in Flagstaff.  Jeff and I will have to go down and visit again sometime this winter to get out of the snow!

 At Aunt Linda's house.  Luke looks so big next to little Kylie.

On the drive to California.  Luke loves to chew on his little monster's foot.