Kirtland:Zion's Camp

What do you know, I AM alive! And doing stuff, too.

A week ago I spent the weekend in Kirtland, Ohio for their annual YSA conference, Zion’s Camp. I had a good time last year and knowing that John Bytheway would be there this year sealed the deal. My sister came with me (her first conference other than the ones we hosted) and our friend Miranda (her first YSA conference ever- she’s a graduating senior) drove with me. Kirtland is the nearest conference to us (besides our own!) being exactly 2 hours away. It’s not hard to get to, either, which is very nice for us chauffeurs. It’s also one of the largest in the area- last year there were probably 300 and this year there were nearly 400 in attendance!

The most family-friendly graffiti wall you'll ever see...and there's me!

There were games and whatnot going on when we got there, we had fun socializing and eating dinner. Later that evening, John Bytheway spoke and it was great. The conference’s theme was “Guided by the Light” and he spoke about being an example and shared some really wonderful stories that touched my heart.

I’ll paraphrase one of his stories. When the church wanted to preach in a certain part of Finland (after the Soviet Union fell, remember that kids?) they were denied. The leaders there were opposed to the church and were determined that the only church be the Church of Russia. They held a meeting to discuss the matter and there was a (non-member) reporter from Chicago there covering this meeting. So they turned to him and asked him about the Mormons- he was American after all. And he said that he knew of Mormons and that they were good, hardworking honest people-good families. He said that if they were going to let anybody in, it should be the Mormons. And so that area of Finland was opened because someone was a good example to this reporter and I’m sure they never knew the influence they had.

Choose the right, shine your light.

John Bytheway also spoke Saturday morning, both talks were great. And we had the pleasure of hearing from and meeting his wife, Kimberly. She is a really sweet, pleasant, kind person and a great example as well. It was cute to watch her while he spoke- you knew she had to have heard these stories a million times but she was watching him with a loving look on her face. Very sweet and a very good example of the kind of woman that us gals should aspire to be like.

Later on Saturday there were classes- they were fine. I attended one on creativity taught by a man that didn’t seem all that creative but hey. He did have a good suggestion- that we should each make a “creativity date” with ourselves. He meant that we should allot ourselves two hours a week to either do something that we like or we could use that time to learn something new that we’ve always wanted to do. I thought that was great because everyone should work on their talents and explore new ones. He also showed clips of President Uchtdorf’s talk on the subject, which still remains as one of my favorite addresses.

I attended a dating class (there weren’t many classes that appealed to me) which said the same stuff you hear all the time but the gal teaching was pretty funny. And some stuff was funny but not on purpose- like the suggestion that you and your date could go to the park and make balloon animals for children. I do that on dates all the time, don’t you?

The last class was supposed to be about leadership but didn’t get to that topic til the end- too much funny business up front. I did get a kick out of this list (of things that define success), can you guess which ones the boys suggested and which ones the girls did? Hint: the girls didn’t put “hot wife” on there. The (male) teacher also said that it takes approximately 15 years for a wife to train the jerkiness out of her guy. I think every girl got the same look on her face when he said that!

Hint: The girls anwers were in purple

Us girls wound up signing up to do service at the same nursing home as I went to last year- there were two to sign up for so it was a 50/50 shot ( I couldn’t remember the name of the place). So that was pretty déjà vu for me- playing bingo with seniors in a really hot historic house. And once again there were too many YSA and not enough seniors. And once again we got out early- not much to do and they had to eat dinner. It was fine, though.

The one senior was funny- she sat across from one of the young men and said “YOU’RE CUTE!” and then the other gal said “What?” and the gal had to repeat herself several times “I SAID HE’S CUTE!” before the other one heard. That boy was red by the time that was over and we all laughed.

We headed to the same ice cream place nearby, love their vintage interior. I so want an old school bumper car like theirs! Had my fave, birch beer (like root beer).

Had some free time and dinner and then it was time for the dance. It was fun, I was quite the social butterfly- I migrated around the room, dancing with a bunch of different circles. No one can say I need to “get out there more”. They had a swing dance competition that was fun to watch- some talented people out there who can do all that on the spur of the moment.

My shirt for the dance was very very hot pink. You’re not losing me in a crowd with this baby! I tweaked it for the dance, I’ll go into more detail on that in its own post. Sidenote: I also totally tweaked another shirt for the conference but didn’t wind up wearing it- too hot. Conferences are a great excuse for me to make or buy something new. It’s fun trying out new looks.

Sunday was great- having sacrament meeting in the Kirtland temple is pretty cool. Actually, it’s pretty hot in there but the experience is cool, ha ha. We had great speakers and testimonies. The choir was amazing- they sounded like angels. It’s pretty cool to sing “The Spirit of God” in there, it sounded amazing.

After sacrament meeting, we had a great catered lunch and then were turned loose to see the sites. We toured historic Kirtland with my friends from Harrisburg. It was very warm and very humid that day, I melted in my church clothes at the sites and Miranda was starting to get sick from the heat. Blech. Someday I need to see those places when it’s not miserably hot outside, I seem to associate church sites with misery because of the awful weather. It’s always great to see those places, though. I didn’t realize before coming to Kirtland just how much was done in such a short period of time and how much doctrine was revealed there.

Miranda and I after lunch...yum!

We made it back just in time for the evening devotional- I didn’t stay for it last year and had no idea that so many would stick around for it. I thought more would have gone home. There wasn’t room for us in the chapel so we got comfy chairs in the foyer and listened out there, darn it. Ha ha. The Cleveland mission president spoke and it was really great, I was glad we came back for it.

He chided his sister missionaries for thinking the elders were icky- “If they want to get married they need a better attitude.” But I’m on the sister missionaries side- they are icky. They’re supposed to be icky. They’re like little brothers. The Holy Ghost locks our hearts. Besides, I’m sure he doesn’t want a mess of hormones between his missionaries! I admit that it took me awhile to get out of that sister missionary nun thing and find that not all boys are icky.

He also reminded us that getting married is the next step after being a missionary. I was glad that he said that, for I always feel a bit guilty for ditching my YW to go to these things even though the Spirit tells me it’s ok to go. The girls usually don’t come to church (despite regular nagging and pleading) but I feel bad for counting on them not to be there. Anyhow, I felt that his comment was my answer that it’s okay to go to these activities. YW is very important but so is this endeavor.

Anyhow, us gals had a good time- Miranda is much more mature than her young years and she was fun to have with us this weekend. It was funny because there were boys that didn’t believe Miranda is only 17- she had to pull out her license to prove it! She’ll turn 18 this summer at BYU. She mostly came to hear John Bytheway.

My sister was so funny- she met a boy she liked and spent the whole conference taking pictures of him and with him. So funny to watch her be boy crazy! Alas, no such report for me for my Branch President, ha ha. But I still had a good time.