I haven't made a blog post in forever now - which isn't good. I was way gung-ho about it for a while, but I guess it wore off. I wasn't sure what to write about it anymore. But now I've got stuff! I want to share my experience from my stake's Youth Conference this year.
I had been excited about this trip for a while. We were gonna drive to Palmyra, New York and Kirtland, Ohio. I had been to Kirtland before, but never to Palmyra (except when I was too young to remember). I couldn't wait to see the Sacred Grove, the Hill Cumorah, and just walk the places that Joseph Smith the prophet walked. Then, as things always do for me right before Youth Conference, things just started to go wrong. I realized I was supposed to have a study packet to spiritually prepare myself for the trip beforehand, and I never got one. On the Thursday before we left, my online classes went down, not to be fixed until the night we left. So then I was going to conference already behind in my classes and not properly prepared. I had already committed to going, though.
Sunday night we met at the ward building and drove up to the stake center. There we had a fireside, went over a couple procedures (I really only remember the ones involving food), and then went to members houses to stay the night. The members of the group I was in for the night were me, one other guy from my ward, and two other guys not in our ward. First thing that happened was one of the other guys realized he forgot his tennis shoes, so we drove twenty minutes away to meet his mom to pick them up. The cool things were that this guy was so nice about it and wouldn't have made us drive that far if we didn't want to, and that everyone made an adventure out of it. There was no complaining at all. So I got to know them pretty well. They were amazing young men with very strong testimonies. At one point in the evening, the guys from the other ward were talking about their experiences in dating. They tried to do a group date every month. It was so cool do hear one of them say, with firm resolution in his voice, "We have never done anything against the standards in For the Strength of Youth." Sometimes I struggle because I sometimes feel more pressure to do what's right at school than at church. My non-member friends know my standards and (almost always) respect them. At church, sometimes there are disagreements about standards. I hope these people never read this (I doubt they will), but I know some people who are really into violent, rated M video games. I like to follow what it says in "For the Strength of Youth" which says, "Do not attend, view, or participate in entertainment that is ... violent ... in any way." These video games are rated M for violence. The point isn't that I think everyone should follow the standards the way I see them. Why I bring this up is because I've had people try on multiple occasions to convince me those games are okay, when I'm perfectly willing to just not talk about it. Well, these people at conference made me want to be a better person. And I get that at my ward too, but not from everybody. I felt like they were trying to build me up. It was the first night of conference, and I had already had my testimony strengthened - my testimony of the saints of the church.
The next day they split us up from the groups we were in into "van groups" for the drive up. I was kinda sad to not be in the same group we were in Sunday night, but it was okay. The drive up was rather uneventful. I slept a lot. Listened to music with a friend from my ward. In Kirtland we toured the Whitney Store, the visitors center, and the temple. It was way cool to stand in the school of the prophets room, where Christ appeared. The temple was kind of neat because it's owned by the Community of Christ church. The tour guide seemed like a nice guy, though, and our church and their church seem to get along really well. That showed me that our church can certainly get along with other churches just fine, even a church that branched off of ours (we could view them as dissenters and enemies).
From Kirtland we drove up to Palmyra. We had dinner and played frisbee and whatever. We were staying on a college campus. I had a dorm room with one of my good friends from my ward (I was very grateful for that). Then later that night we had a dance. I wasn't feeling to good - I think it was mostly exhaustion. The previous week I had been working a lot and hadn't gotten enough sleep. My shyness and nervousness sort of compounded that. So I kind of sat out for most of the dance. It was the first church dance where I didn't dance with anyone, which made me sad. A couple girls from my ward came over and talked to me a little bit, though, which was nice. Towards the end of the dance, my brother, a good friend from my ward, someone in my Sunday night group, and I put on a skit. That went really well. It was worth sapping out the rest of my energy. It helped me not feel like a complete loser.
The next day, Tuesday, we toured most of the sites. We went to the Smith farm, the Smith home, the printing shop where the printed the Book of Mormon, and probably some other places that I can't recall right at the moment. It was really neat to feel the spirit there. It was amazing to actually be in the place where the prophet Joseph walked, to walk the streets I'd heard all those stories about. I loved the people in our stake and our ward that I was walking around with, and I could feel the spirit very strong. By the print shop there was a little store (the Cumorah Shop or something), and I bought a t-shirt that says "I <3 Mormon Girls." That night I played basketball with a couple youth and discovered even some Mormon basketball players can be cocky and annoying, but that's okay. Most places you go you find a lot more than one person you don't like. That night was the Hill Cumorah Pageant. That was absolutely amazing. I love drama productions, especially since I've been acting. Well, it was really neat so see a huge production all about the Christ and the Book of Mormon and the restoration of the gospel. See, I'm big on Christian music (that might have sounded random, but just hear me out). I like to go to the Winter Jam tour, a big Christian music concert with lots of bands. They consider that worship, and that's many people's form of worship. I just go because it's fun. But the pageant - it was loud, it was exciting, it was powerful, there were amazing special effects, and you could feel the spirit so strongly. You could never feel the spirit that strong at a Christian rock concert. Seeing that contrast, as well as the contrast to the creepy people with signs protesting the church outside the pageant, really strengthened my testimony.
Wednesday was to be the day we went back home. Before we did, we stopped at the Sacred Grove. As we went in, there was some talking and all, you know. But as time went on, it got quieter and quieter until we were all silently basking in the spirit. I got a chance to sit by myself and pray. I prayed for twenty minutes I believe, which really isn't that long, but it was for me. It was so quiet and so peaceful. It was kinda cool to think - not only had God the Father, Jesus Christ, and Joseph Smith been present in those woods, but so had the devil when he tried to stop Joseph from praying. It was amazing how the immense power of the Godhead chased out all traces of the devil's presence in that area. There is definitely a power left there.
The ride home was actually one of my favorite parts of the trip. My van consisted of me, two guys from my ward, and about nine girls I didn't know very well (if at all). I have always been shy, especially around girls, and especially especially around Mormon girls. I think I've always been rather intimidated by their strong spirits. I often feel inferior. Well, on this ride home, we had a ton of fun. We played Mafia, threw paper back and forth, danced to music (often rocking the van back and forth), talked, and yeah. I was able to loosen up and make some good friends, and that meant a lot to me. So anyhow, thanks for reading, this is Scotty, the blogger too lazy to go back and proofread this post (please overlook any typos)!
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