I spent Memorial Day Weekend at the Kirtland conference in Ohio, also known as Zion’s Camp. I wound up with three other girls in my car there- Kaitlyn, Briana, and my sister Laura. It was a pretty full car with all our stuff! We stayed at a hotel this year- it was nice to know your roommates and amenities as opposed to staying at a stranger’s house- but it’s a pricey alternative.
Friday was spent at the church building- there was food and games going on. You could play raffle games and win tickets towards prizes- and these were good prizes like iPods and gift cards. Is this where my pricey ticket went? I helped my friend Anne (who is now married but a saint to help out. I don’t know if you could get me back at a conference if I got married!) run her game- getting three balloons to stay up in the air for 30 seconds won you a ticket. It was my only chance to see her over the weekend so we got caught up in between people playing.
We also had a speaker that night that was great. He spoke about the hardships in his life and how he was thankful for them because they lead him to the church. He was really inspirational and the spirit was strong there.
Saturday was spent getting breakfast and listening to Brad Wilcox, who is a great speaker. I’d never heard of him before but now I’m a fan. He’s funny and spiritual. He spent time talking about our birthright and he explained the whole process using volunteers from the audience to stand in as Israel and all his family. We had classes, I enjoyed mine. I went to one on careers and I feel pretty good about myself and my skills. I also went to one on dating, it was funny and had the usual info.
We also did service, this year I did something different and wound up sorting clothes for a charity. For the most part it was fine, but some bags were a bit scary (and really, who donates lingerie?) or moldy. And sometimes it was really hard to tell if something was a small woman’s or a bigger girl’s size. We got a lot done in a relatively short amount of time and the guy in charge was really thankful. He said he likes working with us Mormons because we get to work and don’t argue with each other like other churches! It was a very nice compliment from him- he said he’d work with us anytime.
Bell bottoms!
Bags of sorted clothes:
We tried to find the old school ice cream parlor but I couldn’t this time. I couldn’t remember where it was.
Dinner was good and afterwards was the dance. It was pretty fun and pretty funny because a cute 18 year old guy asked me to dance! I’m such a cougar! Even funnier he was saying he had graduated the day before and on Sunday he made a point of telling us that his tie was the one he wore to prom. Too funny!
Sunday was Sacrament meeting in the Kirtland temple, which is always nice. Brad Wilcox spoke again, mostly about Joseph Smith and it was great. It was also nice to hear the testimonies from other YSA. It amazes me how many young people are joining the church, it’s great.
It was a beautiful sunny day. We made it back to the college and got a really great catered meal. That's half the reason I go! We were then turned loose to see the sites in Kirtland. We spent some time at the quarry, I haven’t been there for awhile. We also saw a neat photographic exhibit in the visitor’s center of photographs taken of church sites in the early 1900’s. I enjoyed the photographs, they were great. We also walked around the sites there. In the evening Brad Wilcox spoke again and it was great. There was also a speaker who for whatever reason, mentioned our fhe leader by name even though it was his wife that knew him forever ago, not him! Totally random.
We made it back home that night after I dropped people off at the Erie building. Overall it was a nice weekend and I was glad I could go. It was my last YSA conference (hosted by another stake, that is) before I turned into a pumpkin, aka turned 31.
