We are the Young Women of the Highland 9th Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Highland, Utah.
We are daughters of our Heavenly Father who loves us and we love Him. We stand as witnesses of God at all times, in all things, and in all places as we strive to live the Young Women values.
We took all the YW to see the Sacred Gifts Exhibit at BYU. What a wonderful night to experience all the beautiful paintings of Christ from all around the world. It was a very sacred experience to share with our Young Women. As we work toward our goal of "Coming Unto Christ" and "Becoming His" these paintings reminded us of all the wonderful things our Savior has done for us, has gone through for us and that He is always there for us. We are blessed with the knowledge the gospel gives and being able to walk around looking at this beautiful paintings reminded us of that.
Bishop Coulter wanted our Youth Conference to build unity within our youth. He wanted the youth to have each other's back, to take care of each other and to realize we are all one family. With this admonition we chose the theme "Same Team, Different Jersey." We based our conference on a Mormon Message titled "Same Team."
The video is about two young men who are friends off the field, but rival quarterbacks on the field. On Friday night is the big rival game, the next day Teren is set to baptize Brandon. The video used a quote by President Uchtdorf taken from a talk he gave at Priesthood Session.
And so it begins...
On Friday all the youth 14 and up drove to Aspen Grove. They each received a backpack with a YC booklet, water bottle, snacks, pompom and roommate assignments.
Youth Conference Booklet
The booklet contained the weekend schedule, motivational quotes about team work, note pages for each speaker, teams and memory pages.
YC Booklet Cover
Photo Booth One of the most popular things we had was a Photo Booth. We used a football theme background and had lots of props for the youth to use.
Zac - our photographer
Josh - testing our photo booth
"Hall of Fame"
We printed out the photos and hung them on our "Hall of Fame" wall. At the end of the Conference the youth were able to take home the photos and add them to their memory pages in their YC Booklet.
MVP Board
We also had a MVP Board. This was a board we hoped to fill up with all the nice things everyone was doing at Youth Conference. If you noticed someone being kind, doing something nice or going our of their way for someone else, their name was written on a pennant and placed on the MVP Board. It was fun to see how fast the board got filled up.
Speakers
DaNae Peterson
I spoke on the theme of Youth Conference "Same Team, Different Jersey"
Jason Lindsey
Jason spoke on Social Media and how to use it safely.
Alliy Sahagun
Alliy spoke on Dress and Appearance
Jeffrey Louiza
Jeffrey spoke on Friends
Isaac Neilson
Isaac is a BYU Basketball player and he spoke on Self Esteem
Bishop Coulter
Bishop was our concluding speaker and showed a video about Derek Redmond, an Olympian who pulled his ham string during the 1992 Olympics, but never gave up and made it to the finish line.
Teams
On Saturday morning the 12 and 13 year olds joined us for the rest of our conference. We divided everyone into teams and they were given a dog tag with their name and made in the color of their team.
We had five teams and they stayed together the whole time we were at Youth Conference. They sat together, ate together and played games together.
Activities
We watched the movie "Miracle," played lots of Minute to Win it Games, hung out at the Game Center (pool tables, air hockey, ping pong - this was a big hit). Some found a little snow even though they had to hike to find it.
Dancers
We were even entertained by an impromptu dance group
We celebrated our New Beginnings by using the Movie 'Up" as our inspiration. We wanted the girls to leave with a feeling of excitement for the coming year - for all the great things we will be "Up" too in 2014.
Invitations
Our invites were rolled up and tied with a blue helium balloon.
Decorations Our decorations started with three pieces of art work one of our YW, Megan Erickson painted.
She did an amazing job!!!
We also used balloons, maps, old suitcases and a globe to create the feeling from the movie.
The Program We had our theme song playing while the YW and parents arrived. Our theme song for the year is "This is the Best Day of My Life," by American Authors. We love the upbeat tune and want each girl to realize each day can be the best day of their life. Russell I thought we couldn't use the theme "UP" and not have Russell make an appearance, so I volunteered and came dressed as Russell. I found all the wilderness survival badges on pinterest and made the scout sash, ironed on the wilderness survival patch to my hat and flag. (I think I looked pretty authentic:)
I hid out in the kitchen and once the prayer was offered I banged on the cultural door. My Laurel President who was conducting, played Mr. Fredrickson. We played out the scene in the movie when Russell firsts comes to Mr. Fredrickson's door asking if he needs any assistance. We kept pretty much to the script from them movie and only changed the words to relate to the YW. I even belted out "The Wilderness Must Be Explored - Qa Caw, Qa Caw - Roar."
Presentation of YW Motto and Logo I then invited all my fellow wilderness explorers to please stand and recite the YW theme. We then talked about several things a YW must do, and skills and tools she must use to help her be successful. We used a walker with a sign with the motto "Stand for Truth and Righteousness" attached to it and then had a YW hold a torch to represent the YW logo. They read the YW motto and explained what the YW torch represents.
We presented each of the class badges and explained their symbol and meaning of each one.
Value Presentation
We had 8 of our Laurels dress up in Scout shirts and sashes. A YW came up with a balloon the color of the value and recited the scripture associated with the value and tie the balloon to the walker, then another YW came up and read the statement that goes with the value. We had made Value badges and after the YW read the statement they stuck the badge on the YW's scout sash.
Introduction of New Beehives
We introduced our five new Beehives by having a Laurel interview them before hand and finding out all about them. We introduced them by talking about the many qualities they are collecting on their journey and adventure into Young Womens. We had mason jars etched with their names and added gold chocolate coins as we talked about each of their qualities. We then presented them with the jar and encouraged them to keep adding to their jars.
Adventure Awaits - Calendar Items
We handed out upcoming calendar dates for YW and parents to be aware of.
Yearly Theme Presentation
I talked about our 2014 theme which is "Come Unto Christ" and told to the girls about four action-packed objectives that President Monson had given in a talk and if followed would help them reach their final destination.
1. Gaze Upward
2. Look Inward
3. Reach Outward
4. Press Forward
I then discussed how we would "Come Unto Christ," by learning about the atrributes of Christ found in 2 Peter. I pulled each attribute out of my Russell backpack and stuck them on my scout sash as badges we will earn this year.
Other badges we will earn will be Personal Progress and Strength of Youth Badges.
I closed with a slide show I had created using pictures of Carl and Ellie from the movie while reading the book "Don't Look Back" by Mary Engelbreit
Adventure Books We made each of the YW their own adventure book (smash book) for them to use throughout the year, adding pages, writing about all the wonderful things they experienced and did this year.
Musical Number We had a special musical number sung by two girls from each class and they sang "Coming Home" by Shawna Edwards Letting Balloons Go To finish the evening we gave each YW a balloon and marker and asked them to write something on the balloon - a goal, a wish, a dream for the coming year. After they finished we went outside and everyone let go of their balloon as they said, "It's Up to Me"
Refreshments We purchased cupcakes frosted in the value colors and arranged them on the table in the shape of hot air balloons attached to the "UP" house. They were yummy and added to our decorations.
