Odd number years mean that our ward is responsible for our own youth conference. This year we decided to do a local activity based on our theme for the year, D&C 4:2 - "Therefore O ye that embark in the service of God see that ye serve him with all your
Heart, Might, Mind, and Strength . . ."
We used these 4 principles as the inspiration for our activities.
We started our conference at 1 pm on Friday July 31st. We were going to meet in the Relief Society Room but one of our ward members died that week and the funeral was at 1 pm with greeting in the RS room. We moved to the Aaronic Priesthood room and had our opening session. Bishop Pope talked about his grandmother LaDuke and how she served the Lord.
Then we were off to the Provo Temple to do baptisms (this was our Heart activity). We used family file names provided by my sister-in-law, Marianne Bates. Due to a new way they handle the recommend desk several of the young men were in the baptistry before I could give them their names so I had to be baptized for five of the people.
 |
| Kristhal Masbernat and Julie Jenks set out the condiments |
After our session at the temple we returned to the church and everyone went home to change to we could go up the canyon for our evening meal. We reserved a pavilion at Big Springs park at the top of the South Fork of Provo Canyon.
 |
| Jack Windsor playing a frisbee game with Savanah Pope and Zoe Henricson |
The Deacons and Beehives were responsible to provide the meal. They made Stray Dogs (Hot dogs made with JDawg sauce). They did a great job and it was an excellent meal.
 |
| Our youth paying ultimate frisbee after dinner |
Originally we were planning to have a quick dinner and short devotional and be home before 8 pm but the youth were having such a great time playing together that we just let them socialize for about an hour longer than we had planned.
 |
| Doug Kleven, Sam Andrus, Jeff Windsor, Kate Windsor, Julie Jenks, and Amanda Coon visit after the meal |
Bro. Kleven was our speaker and he conducted a Q&A session that went a bit longer than we had planned. After devotional it was time for Sam Andrus' Cookie Barrel and the ride home. I was home around 9:15 and then had to drive to American Fork to get the air cannon for our Saturday games activity.
Saturday morning we were back at the church at 7 am to make our breakfast for our hike to the summit of Buffalo Peak (this was our Strength activity). We arrived at the parking lot at the trail head only to find a large group camping there. We drove up the road a quarter mile and parked next to the trail which saved us about 10 minutes of hiking.
I was surprised how many youth were there for the hike. We have many youth who love to hike and quite a few who don't. The hike to Buffalo peak is short but at the end is quite steep. We all made it to the summit where we ate our breakfast then had a thought by Amanda Coon. She talked about Super Man and how he had to avoid Kryptonite. He couldn't even be close to it for a short time without being affected. At the end she gave everyone a small bag of green colored rock candy to represent Kryptonite.
Then we took a big group photo and hiked back down and drove to the church to start our service projects (this was our Might activity). For service we washed windows, did a little landscaping, and helped a family load their moving van.
 |
| Katw Windsor, Kristhal Masbernat, and Su-Jong Hwang serve lunch to the Wood twins and Bethany Yorgason |
Originally we had planned to use the Stake Pavilion for our meals on Saturday but a large local family had reserved it from 9 am to 6 pm. Fortunately our ward has two neighborhood parks that are quite hidden from view. We used the largest one for our lunch followed by games and activities.
 |
| Waiting in line for lunch. Looks like there was more shade then there really was. |
After lunch we fired up the air cannon and shot water balloons and candy. Kids played frisbee and basketball and finally we played Cube. It was hot and the neighborhood parks don't have much shade.
After our game activity we were off to the Cougar Bowl at the BYU Wilkinson center to bowl for 2 hours. We reserved 9 lanes and could have up to 6 people per lane.
 |
| Stephanie Jenks, Kristhal Masbernat, Bryson Henrickson, Jence Dever, and Josiah Kleven enjoying the activity |
The youth had a great time and the adults had a tournament. Bishop Pope and Jeff Windsor were playing the final game. Bishop was leading by 6 pins, 126 to 120, and Jeff had one more ball to roll. As he released his ball our reservation timed out and even though he knocked down 7 pins the computer set his score to 0 so he lost. Great Fun.
 |
| Amelia Chan, Serena Keck, Elia Chan, Kate Windsor, Sue Hwang, Jessica Jenks ready to bowl. |
After bowling we returned to the church for our evening meal and devotional. The pavilion was supposed to be empty by 6 pm. We arrived at the church at 5:45 pm to find the parking lot full and over 200 people enjoying a meal in the pavilion. It didn't take a genius to realize we were not going to be eating there anytime that evening.
 |
| Another large gathering at the Roper home |
I made an executive decision and asked Kate Windsor (the young women's president) if she agreed. We decided to move the meal to our house. We have enough chairs and tables to feed a large group so we set up in our back yard with a serving line under the deck and everyone had an enjoyable meal.
 |
| Brent Keck addressing our youth |
After the meal (where they ate all the pulled pork, all the rolls, and nearly all of the cole slaw) we took all our chairs around to the front of the house to get away from the road noise and set up on our front deck for our closing devotional. Bro. Keck led a discussion on fasting and challenged the youth to decide what they were going to fast for the next day. We closed the activity with cake from Costco with the 4 main themes of the conference spelled out in blue icing.
Sunday afternoon we closed our conference with a combined meeting (this was our Mind activity). We had an invited speaker, Khyl Shumway, who shared his experience surviving a plane crash in Alaska. He spoke for about 75 minutes and was very uplifting. I was surprised how well the youth paid attention.
We concluded our Youth Conference with a pot luck 'Break-the-Fast' meal in the multi purpose room. Over all the conference was well attended, the food was great, and because we didn't travel it was nice to have our deacons and beehives join us. Next year is Trek again. Thankfully the Stake is in charge.
