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.