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Nephi and the Construction of the Boats and the Breaking of the Bow

Dear Reader,

Youth conference happened this past Thursday through Saturday.

We didn't know it but it was supposed to replace Trek for the youth this year as the stake youth committee did not want to do Trek.  Glo thought that was a good idea but I was not as enthusiastic.  I do think the way it was done was cool.  Since it was a Trek substitute, they patterned it after the life and times of Lehi and Nephi who took a Trek over land and over sea.  So basically it was Trek cleverly disguised.  However, as an unknowing participant, I just thought it was youth conference camping style.  Camping, something Lehi and Nephi also did a lot of, so basically it was...Trek.

Lehi the prophet was told to take a journey.  We were visited by Lehi multiple times along the way and he would tell us what needed to happen next.  Go here or go there.  We would go as a group and a different activity would happen.  When I think of all the different ways it was adapted to be Trek-like and yet still be the story of Lehi and Nephi, I am very impressed.  It is funny though because during the event, because I did not know the idea behind what was happening, I often was just in survival mode and worked to participate and to take care of the youth in our family, and to not get eaten by mosquitoes and to not let the kids in our family die.  I almost failed at one of these and did fail at another of these tasks.  

Just some random details:
It was hot as Hades, around 90 and it was humid most of the time.  The first night of camping we went to bed late, it rained on us starting at 5 am in the morning and I had to get up and put the rain fly on in the rain.  I didn't put it on the day before because it covered the windows and it was so hot we needed air.  I suffered for it the next morning as the rain eventually broke through the windows above my head and I started to get wet.  Thankfully it rained early in the morning, the weather cleared around 8 and it didn't rain the rest of the day.

This was the day of the major activities.  We had lake time in the morning, meaning we met at the lake.  The highlights were the breaking of the bow activity done by the CES coordinator and the building of the boat activity by none other than Mark and Allison Kennedy and the Tree of life activity that night.  Bro Elms talked about how when he was a kid, at age 14 his parents got divorced, his mom remarried a guy he did not like and he wondered what he had done wrong to deserve the crummy divorced kid life.  He compared it to Nephi who was a good guy but at a young age was in the wilderness with a tenuous food supply and his one major method of obtaining food, the steel bow he possessed, and it broke and they were without food for a time.  I really liked his presentation and then the kids made bows out of pvc pipes and strings and arrows made of dowels and nerf bullets as tips.  This activity also almost led to me failing at one of my main objectives mentioned earlier but I will tell you more soon.

The next most excellent activity was the building of the boat.  Mark and Allison have been gathering cardboard for the past month and styrofoam blocks.  Mark has been calling around everywhere for styrofoam and cardboard and he got lots. So he and Allison showed up to the lake, which we had seen and smelled all morning but which we had not set foot in all morning.  They brought tons of cardboard and there were swim noodles and duct tape and plastic.  They made 8 piles of materials and they explained the rules and then gave a countdown and then started the activity.  The kids had one hour to make a cardboard boat.  I worked with our kids.  Other kids made boats in the style of a paddle board which were the fastest.  Thankfully, our kids decided to make a traditional boat and we built a structure and taped it together not always successfully.  But in the end we had a solid structure and then we coated it with plastic and taped that down and then taped swim noodles to the side.  I knew we would not win.  Paddleboards are much faster as they float on the water but our boat I affectionately titled "the dreadnought".  It was the normal shape of a boat and it held at one point 6 youth.  I think it could have held more but because the kids wanted to have fun rather than test the limits of their boat, it was eventually sunk before its limits could be tested.  It was such a fun activity.

That night, we had an iron rod activity with a rope that led to the tree of life with blinking Christmas lights and fruit snacks and the best Lehi and Sariah at the end of the iron rod.  There were fog machines and youth trying to tempt us off the path and friends at the end.  It was great.

My favorite part of the weekend was the next day with the testimony meeting.  Lots of youth bore their testimonies and it was heartening to see so many get up.  Glo bore her testimony and it was sweet to see her feel the spirit and tell how she felt about the gospel.  The best part was when President Ward asked for Brother Orr Sister Kennedy in that order to bear their testimonies.  Mommy got up to bear her testimony and it was the best testimony.  Most of the youth testimonies were short and they were instructed to leave the stories about youth conference and their social interactions out and just bear testimony so that is what they did.  I am afraid I could not tell from their short words if they really believed because they all said similar words and sometimes it was hard to feel what they were actually feeling rather than just saying the words they were hearing others say.

However, Mommy did a great job of telling the context of her feelings which was that she grew up as a child in this stake, she did not have a living father or an active mother and there were bad things happening in her life.  She said: in the context of the Tree of Life where Nephi and Sam and Laman and Lemuel had a mom and dad beckoning them to the Tree, whether they were listening or not; Mommy said she did not have either and it made her so sad as a young person.  She said it was very meaningful when Friday night when we had an iron rod activity and she followed the iron rod to the tree, as she came out of the mists, holding to the Rod of Iron, President and Sister Olsen dressed as Lehi and Sariah beckoned her to the tree and Sister Olsen said "your almost there, come to me".  It was so sweet and I could feel and understand what she felt. Then she said to the kids, if you feel alone, if no-one knows what you are experiencing at home and if your parents aren't supportive, she said "we will be there for you".  She said your leaders at church and more importantly Heavenly Father are at the tree for you and they love you and will be waiting.  I was crying, President Olsen was crying, I looked over and a 16 year old handsome young man who looks like he is doing great had tears running down his cheeks.

It was a great youth conference though it had its snafus.  I am thankful for the opportunity to have participated and though I am not sure I helped enough or did enough but I tried and it seemed like Mommy and I did our jobs.

The PS to this story and the objective I almost failed in...  One of our boys named Clayton was kind of rough around the edges and he was pretty crazy.  He was not participating in most activities because he felt sick but then when he was doing things he wasn't supposed to he had plenty of energy.  So, at the broken bow activity, we made these cheap bows out of PVC pipe.  Clayton asked if he could keep his.  The arrow guy said sure, but you can't take the arrows.  Later on during the morning activities I see Max, a black kid who is Clayton's best friend at youth conference with a hole in his face below his lip.  I asked Max, what happened?  He says Clayton shot him in the face with an arrow.  Now there are so many things wrong with this.  The arrow was taken without permission, Clayton and Max lied when asked by another leader what happened "I fell".  Then when I considered the fact that Clayton almost shot Max in the eye - 4 inches higher than the hole in Max's face it made me very scared.  So I was sternly upset with Clayton and Max as Max had participated as well in the shooting.   After that they both respected and interacted more with me so I think I did the right thing with them.  I am pretty good at getting mad.  But then I showed more love and attention to them and it seemed to work.

This is my post.  Hope you like it.  I don't care if you do.  I am doing this because Mommy is the love of my life and I want to make her happy.

Comments

  1. I like this post and I'm so glad you wrote it! I've really enjoyed reading the different perspectives of your family on Youth Conference.

    ReplyDelete

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