Youth Conference!

Youth Conference was this past week and I love it so much. This year's theme was service so we devoted all of Friday to serving around each unit of the Lafayette Stake. We were split into eleven groups and went our ways. I went to Frankfurt and it was so fun and so worth it. We went to TPA Parks (which, we found out does not mean Tidy Park Association, but Traveler's Protection Agency) and painted a barn and a rabbit coop in the petting zoo. The only bad things were that there were animals that stayed in and around the barn, leading to lovely little (and not so little) presents placed conveniently around where we painted, and it was very hot. If you're not getting what I was saying, there was poop everywhere, and now, unfortunately, everywhere includes the shoes that were on my feet. It really was worth it, though. We splatter-painted our shirts and put handprints on them and now they look AWESOME. Plus, they had so many awesome animals and birds. And we named them all. :) There were many famous birds, a lemur that was hopelessly spoiled for attention, so many adorable and soft bunnies, awesome peacocks,donkeys, sheep that will eat anything (literally), a llama, a happily married pony couple, and some murderous ducks..just to name a few.





Lady Gaga, the pheasant.



Cee Lo Green, the parrot



Rihanna, the cockatoo.

Elvis was also in the building, but he was hiding in a bush, so I was unable to get a picture.

Michael Jackson, too, lived at this park, but I forgot to get a picture of him. He was a black/white chicken/peacock: He couldn't decide.

As you can see, there were many famous people here, including some that you might have presumed dead. But think again, people, because they live in Frankfurt.





Lucy, the donkey. She was the loudest Hee-Hawer I've ever heard.

Kuzco Carl Llama: We didn't want to get too close in case he would spit.



Nephi, the duck. Sorry for the crookedness. We watched as this duck was almost drowned in it's little pond by two other hateful ducks. We named them Laman and Lemuel.


 

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Zaboomafoom, the lemur. We assume it was a close relative of the actual Zaboomafoom from the T.V. show because it's not striped like he is. (Her real name is Rosie, but we didn't like that as much). We got to pet her and she was the most-spoiled-for-attention lemur, I've ever seen. Not that I've seen any other lemurs, but still... Her pose was so funny when we were petting her: She lied there were her arm covering her face like she was in bliss.



Tigger: the cutest and sofest rabbit on Earth. This bunny lived with Zaboomafoom/Rosie. There was a little black bunny too but I don't think we named him. So cute, so soft, so fast. It took a while to catch them.

PEACOCKS! These are all brothers, including the awesome Albino one. He looked like an Ice Princess, uh, Prince.

Heracio, the father of the above peacocks. He was so awesome. I'm so glad he showed us his feathers. He did it just for us. Jessica egged him on by shouting "Dooo it. Dooo it. Dooo it." And he did. Success.

Who knew Joy was so cheap? We stopped at McDonald's on the way home and Mmmm, it was a perfect way to end an awesome time serving others.

That day was so much fun. I got closer to people and had a blast while helping others. Being Youth Conference, we also had two dances, one on Thursday and one on Saturday. Super fun. On Thursday, I had to start the Snowball dance where everyone surrounds you and watches you dance with someone until they say Snowball and we grab another partner. Kinda scary. Kinda embarrassing. Oh, well :) I had fun dancing with my friends and being silly. On Saturday, there were also three workshops. The first one my group went to was more service: We sanded and sealed wooden blocks to send to kids in places where natural disasters have destroyed their homes. Then we went to a kind of "get to know you" workshop. We played name-tag, Bible charades, and signs (a game I happen to love from my days in the Green Bay Stake Young Women). Then, we proceeded to another workshop about service. We had to come up with all the possible things that we could do with a paperclip. Alone, the highest anyone got was 11 things but together, we got 44. It was kind of an example that together, we can accomplish a lot more than we can alone or that others can see potential acts of service in ways that others cannot. Then we tried to fit inside a little square. The idea was that you had to be completely in the square to see Jesus. There were also hymn books on the ground that we could not step on or stack. If you fell out of the box at all, you died. Sadly, I died. The point was not to get everyone in. The point was to see that sometimes, you can be outside of the box (which means you wouldn't die, you just wouldn't see Jesus) and supporting the others inside: Sometimes, you have to sacrifice your blessings to help others reach theirs, ending in more blessings for everyone.

Youth Conference was so great. I can't believe this was my last big youth activity until next summer, since I'm not going to EFY this year (sad sigh). Gah. I love being around youth who believe in what I believe in and hold the same standards as me. It's reassuring to know that I'm really not alone. And although at times it might seem like it, I'm just a prayer away, or a Wednesday-mutual-night away from seeing that I'm really not. And I'm so grateful for that and for all the youth in my stake. I love you guys and I love being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Everyone is such an example to me and I hope I can be an example to someone in the way that the youth in my stake are to me.