Back from Youth Conference!

What a great time we had at youth conference!!!  We missed all of you who weren't able to go with us.  It was a blast!
We left Pocatello at approximately 8:00 am on Friday (June 10) and traveled to SLC in the Lothspeich, Bushman, Hayes, Johnson and Johnston mobiles. I'm not sure about the other vehicles but  the Johnston ride was an adventure with a bunch of fun and crazy girls!  With no electronic devices or cel phones allowed the girls entertained themselves by playing games. Charades in a van was interesting ;) Once we arrived at Temple Square we first went to the genealogical library.  We learned how to search for people on computers by playing  a game of Jeopardy. Each of us had our own computer to use ancestry.org and familysearch.org. to find facts about deceased well known individuals.  It was great fun! 
After the library we went to a nearby park to eat our  lunches. The weather was perfect!  I don't believe we could have asked for it to be any better!  Danese made friends with fine group of individuals who worked in the church office building on the 6th floor. They were very gracious and offered to give us a tour of their floor.  So following lunch that is what we did!  We learned that an elevator there can hold over 20 people at one time!!! We also learned that you have to push the buttons once you get in the elevator to actually make it move ;o)  We learned about taking picture of historical records and manuscripts.  What an important job those individuals have that we take for granted!  After our tour of the 6th floor and up and down the elevator, we went to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.  It was there that we were able to watch a movie about Joseph Smith.  It was powerful! Many tears were shed during the movie.  I believe we all left with a stronger testimony of Joseph Smith and the wonderful work he was a part of in restoring the Church of Jesus Christ!  To perfect the afternoon we went to the Lion House for some delicious pie. 
We then traveled to Sandy, UT to get settled for the evening.  We had hoped to be able to use the hotel's patio  for our dinner but another couple youth groups were already occupying it.  Since we had kitchen's in each of our suites we decided to mingle in the girls' quarters for dinner.  It was a little cozy but worked.  Following dinner we were able to go into a conference room for our testimony meeting.  The spirit  along with a lot of love was felt in that room.  What great youth we have in our ward!  Oh how we as leaders love them!  To top off the evening we visited the swimming pool to play and relax for a couple of hours.  Lights out at 10:30...got delayed just a bit...and bit longer in some rooms.  Makeovers were going on in one of the girls' room while some fun story telling was happening in another.  I do believe everyone got a least a little bit of sleep though. 
Saturday we awoke bright and early to enjoy a quick breakfast at the hotel before heading back to SLC.  Many of us adhered to the advice of bringing good walking shoes while others found "other" footwear to do the job just fine.  Regardless of what was on our feet, we all made it to the top of Ensign Peak!  It was amazing to look out over the Salt Lake Valley!!!  But what I thought was even more incredible is that we were standing where prophets had stood, including the prophet Brigham Young!  What a privilege it was for us to be there.  Following our hike we drove to the cemetery where many of our modern day prophets have been buried.  Once one of the graves of a Prophet had been found one of the youth told about the Prophet who had been buried there.  Danese did an amazing job of organizing the cemetery trip!  She also gave the youth roses to leave on the graves of the Prophets and their wives.  After our visit to the cemetery, we picked up pizza and drinks for lunch.  We found a nice park and enjoyed eating and playing games.  With a day and half packed with bonding, testimony building and fun our Youth Conference was coming to an end.  The Bishop summed up the conference and gave some closing remarks before we began our journey home.  The Johnston mobile was a bit quieter on the ride home as I believe the rest of the vehicles probably were also.  The church is true! We are blessed to have it in our lives!  And the Highland 3rd ward youth are some of the greatest and amazing people I know!   ---Now go check out some of the pictures we took on our trip :)