"LSM Youth Conference"

Youth conference was done on the ward level this year. We had a really good experience planned for all the youth. And the exciting thing about planning it was I knew this would be R.J.'s first conference as a young man! It has been so neat to be able to watch all his "Firsts" as a youth. We centered this conference around service. Focusing mainly on the homeless. Friday night all the youth met at Sis. Exon's parent's house. They have a beautiful home in the hills of Escondido on a ton of property. They have an outdoor amphitheater that was perfect to hold our fireside to kick off the conference. Brother Conforto spoke about his life growing up and the events that lead him to love on the streets and be homeless for a year. He is a dynamic speaker and was really able to hold all the youth's attention. He made us all realize that someone on the streets is still "Someone". After the fireside all the youth prepared and made over 300 sack lunches. We set up about 4 long tables and made an assembly line to put together the lunches. The kids worked hard and fast and never complained. After all their hard work, we then had some fun. The kids then went swimming. But, first it started with throwing in people with their clothes on. Poor R.J. was the first one up and dunked by his own dad. It finally caught up with Rob when a bunch of the boys and other leaders dunked him. At the end of the evening they all had a sleep over, the girls at the Berry's and the Boys at the Nuendorf's home. Of course they snuck out and met to go toilet papering. The next morning they met at the Berry's for breakfast. Then headed out to Down Town San Diego to deliver the lunches. The kids were divided up into cars and given a specific route to follow and hand out lunches to the people in need on the street. Having the kids see the kinds of living conditions some of the people were surviving in made them realize how good they had it. They got to spend an afternoon concentrating on feeding people instead of thinking about themselves. The conference ended on Sunday when with a fireside at our house. Sis. Jamie Pyatt spoke and then we watched a dvd made by Bro. DeBaikes. I took photos of the kids during the whole conference. The video was put to music and let the kids witness their own unselfish actions. It was very touching to see and I think the kids felt it too.