Stake Youth Conference — 1997
Our stake held a youth conference in June of 1997. In keeping with the Sesquicentennial Pioneer theme, we went on a Pioneer trek in the mountains west of Heber. We began at our own Stake Center on Thursday, dressed in pioneer garb. A member of the stake presidency gave a brief message and then announced our “families” (I had originally been asked to be a “pa” for one of these families with another married sister from the stake being the “ma”. Myself and others voiced serious concern about the wisdom of this arrangement, and the idea was dropped). I had some fun and enthusiastic youth in my family, but also two youth with very poor attitudes. We played a name avalanche game, made a family flag, and gave other assignments before leaving the Stake Center. We were asked to choose a family name with a pioneer theme. One of the youth insisted we be called the Lemmings, making it clear that anything religious was passe in her mind. We then had a long ride through beautiful countryside to reach our first campsite. Our first activity was perhaps the best of the whole trip. We heard an inspiring message from Brother Scott Anderson. He held us captive for almost 45 minutes with inspiring stories and timely suggestions for drawing closer to the Savior. His message was so touching. We then played some very fun pioneer games. led by Brad Wilcox, and then Brother Wilcox spoke to us. I suffered through the night with mosquitoes, snoring from nearby campers, and hard ground.
The next day we pulled our handcarts 6 or 7 miles, and encountered some pre-planned challenges along the trail (going blind, having a baby, breaking a leg, etc.). As we had our lunch that day, one of the youth was sitting with a group from our ward, telling them what a waste of time this whole conference was and how she wished her parents hadn’t made her come. I was so proud to hear one of the priests in our ward (CC), respond, “That’s interesting. I think this has been an awesome experience and I am really glad that I came.” We stayed that night at Deer Creek campground, a beautiful remote state campground. We finished with a testimony meeting, a talk by our wonderful stake president, and a downhill handcart pull.
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