My last youth conference, a stakewide conference, occurred in 2006. Along with David Christensen, Andrea Hughes, and one other girl, we got in our bishop's car and drove up to Logan for our conference at USU. David was talking with Bishop Clark about his son Walker in college.
We were taken to the dorms where we were sleeping. I was amazed at the primitive set-up--a bed, a desk, a closet, and communal bathrooms. We were informed that we weren't allowed to go to the girls' dorms. At one point I was talking with Tyler Gowan about how I didn't think I could live in college without a TV; Tyler said all he would need was a DVD player. (As it turned out, I actually watched very little TV in college.)
Our theme for the conference was "S.T.A.N.D."--"Stand Tall and Never Doubt," and we all got navy blue shirts with "STAND" written on the back. I realized that half of my youth conferences had a "stand" theme, the others being "Stand in holy places" and "I never stand alone."
I actually remember surprisingly little about this conference. I know that those who had just graduated were allowed to come (this was just a few days after school ended), even though they were eighteen. I remember that one of Peter Moosman's friends was up at USU for school already, so he and Jackie Gubler hung out with her.
At one point, we had a service project where we had wooden toys that we were coating with mineral oil. They were sending them to Africa, and they told us that in some African languages, no word for toy existed. I spilled some oil on my STAND shirt and my green shorts, and I worried about getting it out. I think I remarked feeling like one of Santa's elves.
At one point, I had gone to a shower stall, and once I got out of the shower, I realized I had forgotten my towel. So I shook myself off like a dog, then put my clothes on. I went back to our room, and I got in the closet to take my clothes off and dry off. But at that point, my clothes had already absorbed all the water, so I was dry but my clothes weren't.
There was a dance with our stake and two other wards, one of which was from Wyoming. I was awkward beyond belief, and I wasn't going to dance. I sat by myself in a corner away from people. If I didn't want to dance, that was not the thing to do, because it made me more conspicuous. People tried to drag me out. A young women's leader from the Wyoming ward was talking to me, and I told her I was a werewolf, and she said, "You're a werewoof?" I was amazed that an adult didn't know how to say "wolf." She told me that when I cross my t's, I should cross them near the top of the letter rather than in the middle, and it would make me feel better about myself. Girls kept asking me to dance but I refused them. Then I was standing near my bishop, and a girl who was a little homely asked me to dance. I was going to decline, but Bishop Clark made me. Mark Millard felt sorry for me for dancing with that girl, and I had noticed she smelled of B.O. (I feel like a terrible person for saying these things.) Then I had to find the other girls who had asked me so they wouldn't feel bad. I found most of them, but not Latecia Pope in time, and she was mad at me.
Later we went swimming and doing other things in the rec center. I was swimming in a pool where Connor Doherty was. When we left, a twelve-year-old by was walking back with his shirt off (having just come from swimming), and Jenelyn Perry said she was shocked because she only saw him from the back and thought it was a girl at first.
Then we drove back on a Saturday. Andrea was sleeping in the front seat, with her head tilted back and her mouth gaping open. Bishop pretended to put things in her mouth. In the backseat, I was on the left, David was in the middle, and the other girl was on the right. In his sleep, David was basically leaning his head on the girl's shoulder; Bishop asked her, "Is David getting fresh?"
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Youth Conference 2005
When I was sixteen, we had a youth conference theme of "We Are All Enlisted" and we spent it at Camp Williams.
We arrived and had an orientation with a pseudo-military theme. We all got tan t-shirts that said "We Are All Enlisted" on the back and had this logo on the front:
I wasn't too fond of the whole army theme for youth conference. They gave us camo bandannas and I refused to wear mine. We all went into barracks and picked a bunk to use, then they had us all fill out cards with questions that would be handed in to the bishopric and they would answer them. I wrote, "Why does symbolism in the scriptures change? Satan appeared as a snake in the Garden of Eden, but the Israelites were healed by looking at a brazen serpent. Lot's wife turned to a pillar of salt, but what about the phrase 'the salt of the earth'?"
Then we had a meeting where we heard from Brother Sainsbury from the Woods Cross High seminary. He asked all of us to say who our favorite latter-day prophet was besides Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and Gordon B. Hinckley. I was going through a phase where I thought "double u" was a dumb name for the letter, so when it was my turn I said "Spencer double v Kimball." David Christensen looked at me and laughed silently when I said that, seemingly in amused approval. Then Brother Sainsbury told the pioneer story about the three eighteen-year-old boys who carried the people across the frozen river. Then he had the three guys closest to eighteen--Mark Millard, Jordan Morley, and Andrew Jones--carry everyone, including the leaders, across the room. I was terribly embarrassed that they would have to carry my heavy body across the room, because I was probably the fattest one there, so I "swam" across the carpet, pretending I was swimming across the river. Brother Sainsbury said I couldn't do that, but no one pushed the issue. (I'm pretty sure those pioneers didn't carry every single person in the company, so me crossing by myself was fair.)
I can't remember when we had our devotional with the bishopric, but it might have been that first night. They read our questions, and Brother Weight said, "This one is deep," and read mine. David told Jordan it was my question, and I felt mildly betrayed that he had seen what I wrote. The leaders' consensus generally seemed to be that the symbols were used as teaching tools as different audiences. Brother Seminario said, "People who are salt of the earth are really good people," and I didn't see where he was going with it. I had done my own thinking about the question, so I piped and said, without admitting it had been my question, "I think they might be the same symbolism, but we just have to think about it. For example, the serpent on the staff might represent a triumph over Satan."
We had some game nights in the same building where we had that devotional. We played Catch Phrase. Tyler Gowan's clue was "I Love Lucy," so he said "The TV show with the heart." The leaders got mad at me when I said "geezer" for one of the clues (maybe it was "Over the Hill"). We also played Apples to Apples, but it was a special edition where each card had a pair, such as "Salt and Pepper" or "Sweet and Sour." It wasn't as fun as regular Apples to Apples, but I was delighted they had a "Ginger and Mary Ann" card.
Our first night I had a horrible time sleeping. It was as though I had taken a two- or three-hour nap during the day, but I hadn't.
I don't quite remember the sequence of the various activities we did, so I will just remember what happened.
Then we went to Woods Cross High's track for our stake track meet. It was a track meet for all the other youths in the stake, but ours was the only one that had it part of youth conference. I was a little envious that all the other wards got bright-colored shirts, when we only had our drab tan shirts. The sleeves said "North Salt Lake Stake Track Meet 6-25-05."
I did shot-put, because I thought that was the only thing I could do and it wasn't really competitive, and everyone was required to do something. I didn't do tell well; Mark Millard did pretty well, but he didn't win. There was a fourteen-year-old boy who was telling us all the proper technique, but he was doing worse than the twelve-year-old girls, so we didn't pay him much mind. Dave Finklea, one of the leaders, tried on one of our track shirts, but it was too small for him. Alexa Ulmer participated in the relay, being one of the people representing our ward, and I was shocked and frustrated that she was walking on her brief leg of the relay, because she only had to run a very small distance, like only a small portion of the track. I kind of regretted that I hadn't signed up for the relay.
For some reason, Dave Finklea took me home, but we had to stop at the house of someone he knew on the way back, and I felt very uncomfortable. I noticed they had patriotic sugar cookies on their counter.
We arrived and had an orientation with a pseudo-military theme. We all got tan t-shirts that said "We Are All Enlisted" on the back and had this logo on the front:
Then we had a meeting where we heard from Brother Sainsbury from the Woods Cross High seminary. He asked all of us to say who our favorite latter-day prophet was besides Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and Gordon B. Hinckley. I was going through a phase where I thought "double u" was a dumb name for the letter, so when it was my turn I said "Spencer double v Kimball." David Christensen looked at me and laughed silently when I said that, seemingly in amused approval. Then Brother Sainsbury told the pioneer story about the three eighteen-year-old boys who carried the people across the frozen river. Then he had the three guys closest to eighteen--Mark Millard, Jordan Morley, and Andrew Jones--carry everyone, including the leaders, across the room. I was terribly embarrassed that they would have to carry my heavy body across the room, because I was probably the fattest one there, so I "swam" across the carpet, pretending I was swimming across the river. Brother Sainsbury said I couldn't do that, but no one pushed the issue. (I'm pretty sure those pioneers didn't carry every single person in the company, so me crossing by myself was fair.)
I can't remember when we had our devotional with the bishopric, but it might have been that first night. They read our questions, and Brother Weight said, "This one is deep," and read mine. David told Jordan it was my question, and I felt mildly betrayed that he had seen what I wrote. The leaders' consensus generally seemed to be that the symbols were used as teaching tools as different audiences. Brother Seminario said, "People who are salt of the earth are really good people," and I didn't see where he was going with it. I had done my own thinking about the question, so I piped and said, without admitting it had been my question, "I think they might be the same symbolism, but we just have to think about it. For example, the serpent on the staff might represent a triumph over Satan."
We had some game nights in the same building where we had that devotional. We played Catch Phrase. Tyler Gowan's clue was "I Love Lucy," so he said "The TV show with the heart." The leaders got mad at me when I said "geezer" for one of the clues (maybe it was "Over the Hill"). We also played Apples to Apples, but it was a special edition where each card had a pair, such as "Salt and Pepper" or "Sweet and Sour." It wasn't as fun as regular Apples to Apples, but I was delighted they had a "Ginger and Mary Ann" card.
Our first night I had a horrible time sleeping. It was as though I had taken a two- or three-hour nap during the day, but I hadn't.
I don't quite remember the sequence of the various activities we did, so I will just remember what happened.
- Some of the guys wanted to take water balloons and water guns and ambush the girls. Nathan Loveridge thought it would be funny to do it while singing "We Are All Enlisted," our conference theme, but Jordan Morley said yelling would be more appropriate. Nevertheless, Nathan tried to memorize the lyrics to the hymn. However, I think only Andrew Jones and one other ended up actually ambushing them with water.
- We played water kickball, where there were wet tarps at each of the bases. People would laugh at me when I would fall to the ground to try to slide. I didn't know what else to do, though, because sliding in on my feet seemed highly dangerous. We had been sitting on the wet grass, and I was highly self conscious about having wet pants, so much so that I didn't even want to bring it up, even though others brought it up about their own pants. I was wearing green shorts.
- We went to various training activities with pretend scenarios. I didn't want to participate in the activities. I think there was one where they had to get people over a wall, and they opted to send me over first. I actually don't remember getting over the wall, I just vaguely remember something like that happening. One girl in our group said, "I bet the Marines are fabulous at this." I think she said that at a station where we pretended to get over the remnants of a bridge. I think I "died" on that one. I don't really remember, but it seems like I was wading in the water.
- Peter Moosman came later. He asked me where Mark (Millard)'s stuff was so he could have his bunk by him.
- We had a service project weeding and cleaning up the grounds.
- We spent some time at a pool there, and I was wearing a white t-shirt, and I remember feeling self-conscious because, of course, a white shirt becomes see-through when wet. I think we rode in Bishop Clark's truck to and from the pool.
Then we went to Woods Cross High's track for our stake track meet. It was a track meet for all the other youths in the stake, but ours was the only one that had it part of youth conference. I was a little envious that all the other wards got bright-colored shirts, when we only had our drab tan shirts. The sleeves said "North Salt Lake Stake Track Meet 6-25-05."
I did shot-put, because I thought that was the only thing I could do and it wasn't really competitive, and everyone was required to do something. I didn't do tell well; Mark Millard did pretty well, but he didn't win. There was a fourteen-year-old boy who was telling us all the proper technique, but he was doing worse than the twelve-year-old girls, so we didn't pay him much mind. Dave Finklea, one of the leaders, tried on one of our track shirts, but it was too small for him. Alexa Ulmer participated in the relay, being one of the people representing our ward, and I was shocked and frustrated that she was walking on her brief leg of the relay, because she only had to run a very small distance, like only a small portion of the track. I kind of regretted that I hadn't signed up for the relay.
For some reason, Dave Finklea took me home, but we had to stop at the house of someone he knew on the way back, and I felt very uncomfortable. I noticed they had patriotic sugar cookies on their counter.
Saturday, August 22, 2015
Youth Conference 2004
The biggest youth conference I ever had was a stake conference where we performed From Cumorah's Hill. They did that in place of a trek, so I never got to experience pushing a handcart or anything. (I probably would have died.)
We started one morning by meeting at North Canyon Park and we got colored bandannas to put us in groups; each bandanna had our conference theme, "I Never Stand Alone," the last song of our program. I can't remember whether the color was assigned to us or if we picked them; I got a white bandanna. A fairly young couple oversaw our group. I might have been wearing a Joe Cool t-shirt that day. We were talking about people being on teams and playing sports, which of course I didn't do. The wife of the couple asked me if I did chess club--I was a little offended that she thought I was nerdy just by looking at me. I was nerdy, of course, but I didn't like chess. I felt extremely uncomfortable in that group. We had an activity where we played a charades-type game, and I think they were all sports clues, and we had to have a partner. I had to be partners with the husband of the couple. One of the ones we had to act out was wrestling. Later, they played some musical clips and all the groups had to come up with a dance to go with it. I really did not want to participate. Part of the music clip had the sound of an engine revving, and we got in a line and pretended we were on a bus. I was at the end, so I was the driver. We practiced it a few times, and then before we were supposed to perform for everyone, I noticed that my mom, sister, and niece were sitting on a hill watching. I wanted to play with my niece, so I used it as an opportunity to try to get out of doing the dance. But then the leaders came up and insisted that I do it, so I reluctantly did so. They told me later that they couldn't have done it without me because I was the bus driver. We all watched the other groups, and one of them incorporated the words "Given this land, if they lived righteously" in their dance. After lunch we had an object lesson where we had to put blindfolds on and someone would guide us over to the park's amphitheater, including telling us when to step down. I kept hearing the guide in front of me telling his person to step down, so I kept stepping down prematurely. Once we were settled in the amphitheater, we were taught by a Bountiful High seminary teacher. He told us a story of a friend he had who got a temptress girlfriend after his mission and ended up getting disfellowshipped, so in order to prevent him from getting excommunicated, he would go to his friend's house when he knew the girlfriend was there and wouldn't leave until she left. He said one night he spent the entire night on his friend's couch eating Cheerios.
I know we had two performances, but I can't remember how many days the conference lasted or if we had dress rehearsals, although I know we had little practice runs. I remember getting in my costume (I was Alma) and taking off my glasses. The people in charge noticed I was squinting and told me I could wear my glasses; Sister Castleberry said she was legally blind, so she knew what it was like. They put makeup on me for the performance. I remember talking with David Christensen about something bad that someone in our stake had done, but I couldn't tell him. He was mad that I told him he had done something bad but then didn't tell him what it was.
We practiced our entrance onto the stage. They played a bagpipe version of some hymn (which I found not fitting), and we all sang "Army of Helaman" as we walked up to the stage.
After the night of our first performance, when I played Alma, we were standing outside with my family, with my makeup still on. Jennifer Nilsson was saying that she hadn't remembered some of the lyrics, joking that she had mouthed "watermelon," which Ya-ping found funny. Someone used the expression "a piece of cake," and Ya-ping said, "a piece of cheesecake!" We took other kids in the neighborhood home. We talked about Chalei Simmons wanting to be a librarian; I said that was a good job for her because she was so quiet. I was excited to go home and watch The Addams Family. After we got home, Susanne was saying that she didn't like Peter Moosman when he was a kid but she liked him now.
I think it was after our first performance that Susanne said that the Brunners' son Brandon had been really excited to see the performance and learned all the songs, and then he slept through it.
I wasn't really going to wash my makeup off--not because I wanted to wear makeup, but because I wanted to see how much would come off just by going about day-to-day activities normally. My family may have made me wash it off, but I can't really remember.
One morning we ate bagels in the green room at the regional center. I remarked about the cornmeal on the bottom of the bagels, just like pizza; Matt Miller said they probably used it to keep them from burning. I didn't know what it was, so I joked that they looked like those things you pull out of your eyes, and Matt said something like, "There are enough tired people here rubbing their eyes for them to use that."
At one point, we engraved our testimonies on gold-colored fold, which they fastened into gold plates and had Moroni "bury" on the stage. My mom later said that she had alluded to "disrespectful youth" in hers because Paul Castleberry had been behaving horribly, and she had threatened to tell his mom.
I wasn't performing during the second night's showing; I was just in the choir. We all got on the stage after singing, and then the lights over the instrumentalists' music didn't turn on, so we just sat in the silent dark while we waited. There were a few outbursts of laughter, I think in an attempt to ease the awkwardness. Some sarcastic guys were behind me, and one said, "That was professional." They were being irreverent the entire performance, so at one point I nudged them to get them to be better. Then later one of them was trying to show his friend what I had done, so he tried to make noise, but I knew that I couldn't nudge him then. I remember watching Alex Harding helping Matt Chidester, who had Down syndrome, beat the drums at the right places. I thought it was nice that he wanted to help Matt do it, but I thought he should have just done the drum himself. Matt liked to belt out the lyric "Stand alone!" in the last song, "I Never Stand Alone."
After that performance, the consensus seemed to be that that was the better performance, but my mom and I thought the first one was better. Matt Miller thought the second was better, but I pointed out how we had the awkward silence at the beginning, and he conceded that that did affect the momentum.
I think it was after the second performance that I saw my friends Macey Garrett and Tiffany Frandsen, and they had called us the "Three Amigos" in ninth grade, and I was sad they missed me as Alma.
Our last evening, we had dinner at our old stake center. They were also showcasing the float our stake (or was it our ward?) made for the 24th of July Parade. Bernie Ure showed up in his Moroni costume; I thought it was because we had all been dressed up as Book of Mormon characters for our show, but I think it was because that was the costume he wore for the parade. Then we went up in the chapel for closing ceremonies. They told us that some sisters employed by the Church to see stake performances had been at our show, and they said that they had seen From Cumorah's Hill performed many times, but they had never seen it with a live orchestra, and they had never seen such a well-behaved group. We closed our meeting by singing "I Never Stand Alone," and the sister in charge gave us a note to start on, but I was pretty sure it was the wrong note. Afterwards I heard someone say, "It's hard to sing a cappella," and I was thinking that it wasn't that we had no accompaniment, it was that it was the wrong key.
We started one morning by meeting at North Canyon Park and we got colored bandannas to put us in groups; each bandanna had our conference theme, "I Never Stand Alone," the last song of our program. I can't remember whether the color was assigned to us or if we picked them; I got a white bandanna. A fairly young couple oversaw our group. I might have been wearing a Joe Cool t-shirt that day. We were talking about people being on teams and playing sports, which of course I didn't do. The wife of the couple asked me if I did chess club--I was a little offended that she thought I was nerdy just by looking at me. I was nerdy, of course, but I didn't like chess. I felt extremely uncomfortable in that group. We had an activity where we played a charades-type game, and I think they were all sports clues, and we had to have a partner. I had to be partners with the husband of the couple. One of the ones we had to act out was wrestling. Later, they played some musical clips and all the groups had to come up with a dance to go with it. I really did not want to participate. Part of the music clip had the sound of an engine revving, and we got in a line and pretended we were on a bus. I was at the end, so I was the driver. We practiced it a few times, and then before we were supposed to perform for everyone, I noticed that my mom, sister, and niece were sitting on a hill watching. I wanted to play with my niece, so I used it as an opportunity to try to get out of doing the dance. But then the leaders came up and insisted that I do it, so I reluctantly did so. They told me later that they couldn't have done it without me because I was the bus driver. We all watched the other groups, and one of them incorporated the words "Given this land, if they lived righteously" in their dance. After lunch we had an object lesson where we had to put blindfolds on and someone would guide us over to the park's amphitheater, including telling us when to step down. I kept hearing the guide in front of me telling his person to step down, so I kept stepping down prematurely. Once we were settled in the amphitheater, we were taught by a Bountiful High seminary teacher. He told us a story of a friend he had who got a temptress girlfriend after his mission and ended up getting disfellowshipped, so in order to prevent him from getting excommunicated, he would go to his friend's house when he knew the girlfriend was there and wouldn't leave until she left. He said one night he spent the entire night on his friend's couch eating Cheerios.
I know we had two performances, but I can't remember how many days the conference lasted or if we had dress rehearsals, although I know we had little practice runs. I remember getting in my costume (I was Alma) and taking off my glasses. The people in charge noticed I was squinting and told me I could wear my glasses; Sister Castleberry said she was legally blind, so she knew what it was like. They put makeup on me for the performance. I remember talking with David Christensen about something bad that someone in our stake had done, but I couldn't tell him. He was mad that I told him he had done something bad but then didn't tell him what it was.
We practiced our entrance onto the stage. They played a bagpipe version of some hymn (which I found not fitting), and we all sang "Army of Helaman" as we walked up to the stage.
After the night of our first performance, when I played Alma, we were standing outside with my family, with my makeup still on. Jennifer Nilsson was saying that she hadn't remembered some of the lyrics, joking that she had mouthed "watermelon," which Ya-ping found funny. Someone used the expression "a piece of cake," and Ya-ping said, "a piece of cheesecake!" We took other kids in the neighborhood home. We talked about Chalei Simmons wanting to be a librarian; I said that was a good job for her because she was so quiet. I was excited to go home and watch The Addams Family. After we got home, Susanne was saying that she didn't like Peter Moosman when he was a kid but she liked him now.
I think it was after our first performance that Susanne said that the Brunners' son Brandon had been really excited to see the performance and learned all the songs, and then he slept through it.
I wasn't really going to wash my makeup off--not because I wanted to wear makeup, but because I wanted to see how much would come off just by going about day-to-day activities normally. My family may have made me wash it off, but I can't really remember.
One morning we ate bagels in the green room at the regional center. I remarked about the cornmeal on the bottom of the bagels, just like pizza; Matt Miller said they probably used it to keep them from burning. I didn't know what it was, so I joked that they looked like those things you pull out of your eyes, and Matt said something like, "There are enough tired people here rubbing their eyes for them to use that."
At one point, we engraved our testimonies on gold-colored fold, which they fastened into gold plates and had Moroni "bury" on the stage. My mom later said that she had alluded to "disrespectful youth" in hers because Paul Castleberry had been behaving horribly, and she had threatened to tell his mom.
I wasn't performing during the second night's showing; I was just in the choir. We all got on the stage after singing, and then the lights over the instrumentalists' music didn't turn on, so we just sat in the silent dark while we waited. There were a few outbursts of laughter, I think in an attempt to ease the awkwardness. Some sarcastic guys were behind me, and one said, "That was professional." They were being irreverent the entire performance, so at one point I nudged them to get them to be better. Then later one of them was trying to show his friend what I had done, so he tried to make noise, but I knew that I couldn't nudge him then. I remember watching Alex Harding helping Matt Chidester, who had Down syndrome, beat the drums at the right places. I thought it was nice that he wanted to help Matt do it, but I thought he should have just done the drum himself. Matt liked to belt out the lyric "Stand alone!" in the last song, "I Never Stand Alone."
After that performance, the consensus seemed to be that that was the better performance, but my mom and I thought the first one was better. Matt Miller thought the second was better, but I pointed out how we had the awkward silence at the beginning, and he conceded that that did affect the momentum.
I think it was after the second performance that I saw my friends Macey Garrett and Tiffany Frandsen, and they had called us the "Three Amigos" in ninth grade, and I was sad they missed me as Alma.
Our last evening, we had dinner at our old stake center. They were also showcasing the float our stake (or was it our ward?) made for the 24th of July Parade. Bernie Ure showed up in his Moroni costume; I thought it was because we had all been dressed up as Book of Mormon characters for our show, but I think it was because that was the costume he wore for the parade. Then we went up in the chapel for closing ceremonies. They told us that some sisters employed by the Church to see stake performances had been at our show, and they said that they had seen From Cumorah's Hill performed many times, but they had never seen it with a live orchestra, and they had never seen such a well-behaved group. We closed our meeting by singing "I Never Stand Alone," and the sister in charge gave us a note to start on, but I was pretty sure it was the wrong note. Afterwards I heard someone say, "It's hard to sing a cappella," and I was thinking that it wasn't that we had no accompaniment, it was that it was the wrong key.
Sunday, August 9, 2015
Youth Conference 2003
When I was thirteen, we had a youth conference with a missionary theme.
It started on a Friday night when we met at the church and received a "call" with our destination and companion. I was "called" to Japan, but that meant absolutely nothing. Ryan Jones was my companion.
At some point the first night, we went to the temple to do baptisms for the dead. I was wearing an extra name tag my brother had given me; that made the sisters in the clothing issue ask if I was endowed. After the temple, we got lessons from returned missionaries on how you teach lessons and what you might say to people. I think I got my lesson from Kyle Gubler. My brother was teaching some people the Taiwanese sign language he learned. Jaydon Bean was amused that the middle finger meant brother. A deacon was telling me that his brother was called to Hong Kong, but I didn't believe that such a mission existed (I was wrong, of course). We were instructed to live like missionaries that night, not watching TV or listening to music. (We didn't have to have a companion.)
In the morning we returned to the church for breakfast; but even though I had been assigned to the Japan mission, I didn't eat at the Japan table (hosted by Brother Bringhurst in a kimono; they had wasabi peas, among other things). Instead we ate at the Italian table hosted by the Ulmers. (The Gublers were in the church kitchen making a southern breakfast.) The Ulmers were very gung ho about their Italian meal. They gave us hazelnut Stephen's hot chocolate (instead of coffee). I think that was the first time I ever had Nutella, on some kind of fancy bread. They gave us some kind of ham product. There was so much food I couldn't really eat it all. They also gave us pages from an Italian language book, explaining the Italian alphabet, and I think they gave us copies of the Italian national anthem. They had a miniature Michelangelo's David that had little shorts on. Laura told us that their mission president had a life-size (meaning as big as a person, not as big as the statue) replica in the mission office, wearing shorts and a tie, with a sign that said something like "Be Mormon, be modest." I had to point the little statue out to Andrew Jones because I thought it was funny.
Then we were supposed to pretend to go tracting. I was wearing an extra name tag my brother had given me, so then some other people went and got their dads' nametags. We got little slips of paper that told us doors we were supposed to go knock on to pretend to be missionaries. We began looking and figuring out the most efficient route to go, but then they told us that we had to do them in the order they were written. One of the houses was lunch, so if we did the houses in order of proximity, it might mess up lunch schedules. Our first house was the Pays, where we were able to go in and "teach" a lesson. After our lesson, Brother Pay taught us how to teach prayer. Then we went up to the Nilssons'; Sister Nilsson let us in, but then Brother Nilsson pretended to be hostile and made us leave. We went to the Christensens', who let us in. Another companionship was there. They pretended to be drinking beer out of of brown bottles, pretending to be very friendly but not religious. Breaking the fourth wall a little bit, I said, "I see you have a Mormon hymnbook on your piano"; they said they had Mormon friends who gave it to them. Caleb got out their scriptures and said their friends gave those to them as well, which I thought was going a bit too far. There was something said about an erroneous belief that baptisms for the dead meant baptizing dead bodies.
We went to the Snarrs'; Sister Snarr answered the door and was dismissive of us. Then we went to the Greenburgs', where we were supposed to have lunch, but they weren't home. Ryan took us to his house, where his mom had sandwich things prepared for the companionship that was supposed to go there, but they never arrived. At some point the conversation turned to The Simpsons, and they seemed surprised that I watched it.
Then we went back to the church. I remember remarking at some point that I didn't like that we knocked on so many houses but only taught one lesson; they said that was fairly accurate and perhaps was too generous. (It's probably like 1 in 1,000, or less.) We had a closing meeting in the chapel, and Laura Anderson spoke at it. I think I was feeling a little depressed.
It started on a Friday night when we met at the church and received a "call" with our destination and companion. I was "called" to Japan, but that meant absolutely nothing. Ryan Jones was my companion.
At some point the first night, we went to the temple to do baptisms for the dead. I was wearing an extra name tag my brother had given me; that made the sisters in the clothing issue ask if I was endowed. After the temple, we got lessons from returned missionaries on how you teach lessons and what you might say to people. I think I got my lesson from Kyle Gubler. My brother was teaching some people the Taiwanese sign language he learned. Jaydon Bean was amused that the middle finger meant brother. A deacon was telling me that his brother was called to Hong Kong, but I didn't believe that such a mission existed (I was wrong, of course). We were instructed to live like missionaries that night, not watching TV or listening to music. (We didn't have to have a companion.)
In the morning we returned to the church for breakfast; but even though I had been assigned to the Japan mission, I didn't eat at the Japan table (hosted by Brother Bringhurst in a kimono; they had wasabi peas, among other things). Instead we ate at the Italian table hosted by the Ulmers. (The Gublers were in the church kitchen making a southern breakfast.) The Ulmers were very gung ho about their Italian meal. They gave us hazelnut Stephen's hot chocolate (instead of coffee). I think that was the first time I ever had Nutella, on some kind of fancy bread. They gave us some kind of ham product. There was so much food I couldn't really eat it all. They also gave us pages from an Italian language book, explaining the Italian alphabet, and I think they gave us copies of the Italian national anthem. They had a miniature Michelangelo's David that had little shorts on. Laura told us that their mission president had a life-size (meaning as big as a person, not as big as the statue) replica in the mission office, wearing shorts and a tie, with a sign that said something like "Be Mormon, be modest." I had to point the little statue out to Andrew Jones because I thought it was funny.
Then we were supposed to pretend to go tracting. I was wearing an extra name tag my brother had given me, so then some other people went and got their dads' nametags. We got little slips of paper that told us doors we were supposed to go knock on to pretend to be missionaries. We began looking and figuring out the most efficient route to go, but then they told us that we had to do them in the order they were written. One of the houses was lunch, so if we did the houses in order of proximity, it might mess up lunch schedules. Our first house was the Pays, where we were able to go in and "teach" a lesson. After our lesson, Brother Pay taught us how to teach prayer. Then we went up to the Nilssons'; Sister Nilsson let us in, but then Brother Nilsson pretended to be hostile and made us leave. We went to the Christensens', who let us in. Another companionship was there. They pretended to be drinking beer out of of brown bottles, pretending to be very friendly but not religious. Breaking the fourth wall a little bit, I said, "I see you have a Mormon hymnbook on your piano"; they said they had Mormon friends who gave it to them. Caleb got out their scriptures and said their friends gave those to them as well, which I thought was going a bit too far. There was something said about an erroneous belief that baptisms for the dead meant baptizing dead bodies.
We went to the Snarrs'; Sister Snarr answered the door and was dismissive of us. Then we went to the Greenburgs', where we were supposed to have lunch, but they weren't home. Ryan took us to his house, where his mom had sandwich things prepared for the companionship that was supposed to go there, but they never arrived. At some point the conversation turned to The Simpsons, and they seemed surprised that I watched it.
Then we went back to the church. I remember remarking at some point that I didn't like that we knocked on so many houses but only taught one lesson; they said that was fairly accurate and perhaps was too generous. (It's probably like 1 in 1,000, or less.) We had a closing meeting in the chapel, and Laura Anderson spoke at it. I think I was feeling a little depressed.
Sunday, August 2, 2015
Youth Conference 2002
My first real youth conference was when I was thirteen in 2002. The theme for the conference, organized by Chantelle Christensen, was "Stand in Holy Places."
Our first activity was to hike Ensign Peak. We parked near the trailhead, and I remember that there was discussion that Karl Malone (or was it John Stockton?) had a home near there. I was the slowest one (I remember wanting to stop at benches along the trail), and I think it was Ann Merkley who was telling me indirectly that I needed to hurry up. When we got to the top, they had a boombox play the EFY song "Stand in Holy Places," and there were other people up there, so it seemed a little awkward to me. I remember thinking it was inappropriate that there was graffiti on the monument. Near the top of the monument was a brick that said "Kolob." One of the leaders asked us what that was; David Christensen knew it was the star closest to God. Some of the leaders said it was in a song, "If you could hie to Kolob, in the twinkling of an eye." I had never heard of Kolob, or that song, or the word hie, so I thought they said "If you could hike to Kolob," and I imagined it was some 70s rock song, since I didn't know that Kolob was uniquely Mormon from the book of Abraham.
Then we went up to Willard Bay; I rode in the same car as Chantelle Christensen and Joe Merkley. When we got there, David Oder showed us how he had previously spelled his name with sunscreen on his back so that his name was white and the rest of his back was tan. We waded out in the bay, and I think I was wearing a blue cotton t-shirt; I found some kind of shell, and I was showing it to others. Katie Clark looked at it, then I asked if she still had it, and she said she had dropped it in the water and I was disappointed. I didn't know if it was natural to the bay or if someone had been eating oysters or something and put it in there.
Jan Hales had brought his boat, and he took us out on it; we would hold on to a rope as he dragged us in the water. When it was my turn, I could feel my swim trunks coming off, so I had to let go. After I let go, I felt them at my ankles, but fortunately I was in the water so no one could see and I pulled them back up. I noticed that there were sleeping bags and beds in the boat; that was the first time I ever knew boats had beds in them. Brother Hales had a daughter and her male friend with us. After a while, Brother Hales decided there were too many people out on the bay for us to keep doing it; the male friend told the daughter that we were going back to shore because of all the "idiots."
I think we had sloppy joes for dinner, but I only remember that because David Christensen said they ate them at his house for months after. When we loaded up the cars to go home, I was saying that a few months earlier I had had a case of ringworm on my neck that looked like a hickey. Chantelle thought that was very funny.
Our first activity was to hike Ensign Peak. We parked near the trailhead, and I remember that there was discussion that Karl Malone (or was it John Stockton?) had a home near there. I was the slowest one (I remember wanting to stop at benches along the trail), and I think it was Ann Merkley who was telling me indirectly that I needed to hurry up. When we got to the top, they had a boombox play the EFY song "Stand in Holy Places," and there were other people up there, so it seemed a little awkward to me. I remember thinking it was inappropriate that there was graffiti on the monument. Near the top of the monument was a brick that said "Kolob." One of the leaders asked us what that was; David Christensen knew it was the star closest to God. Some of the leaders said it was in a song, "If you could hie to Kolob, in the twinkling of an eye." I had never heard of Kolob, or that song, or the word hie, so I thought they said "If you could hike to Kolob," and I imagined it was some 70s rock song, since I didn't know that Kolob was uniquely Mormon from the book of Abraham.
Then we went up to Willard Bay; I rode in the same car as Chantelle Christensen and Joe Merkley. When we got there, David Oder showed us how he had previously spelled his name with sunscreen on his back so that his name was white and the rest of his back was tan. We waded out in the bay, and I think I was wearing a blue cotton t-shirt; I found some kind of shell, and I was showing it to others. Katie Clark looked at it, then I asked if she still had it, and she said she had dropped it in the water and I was disappointed. I didn't know if it was natural to the bay or if someone had been eating oysters or something and put it in there.
Jan Hales had brought his boat, and he took us out on it; we would hold on to a rope as he dragged us in the water. When it was my turn, I could feel my swim trunks coming off, so I had to let go. After I let go, I felt them at my ankles, but fortunately I was in the water so no one could see and I pulled them back up. I noticed that there were sleeping bags and beds in the boat; that was the first time I ever knew boats had beds in them. Brother Hales had a daughter and her male friend with us. After a while, Brother Hales decided there were too many people out on the bay for us to keep doing it; the male friend told the daughter that we were going back to shore because of all the "idiots."
I think we had sloppy joes for dinner, but I only remember that because David Christensen said they ate them at his house for months after. When we loaded up the cars to go home, I was saying that a few months earlier I had had a case of ringworm on my neck that looked like a hickey. Chantelle thought that was very funny.
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