Fight for the Right: Youth Conference 2010

On Saturday, we had an awesome Youth Conference. Our theme was "Fight for the Right". We started early at the church where we received our name tags and colored bandanas that divided us into Nephite teams. Team Teancum was blue; Team Helaman was green and Team Moroni was orange. We began with an introduction from Sister Bird talking about Captain Moroni and the Title of Liberty. We talked about challenges we are facing today and then created our own Title of Liberty which included haivng courage, respect and love for each other, teamwork and trust, and the gospel at the forefront of our lives.

Orientation and Opening: Jayden, Juliana, Paytene, Patch, Allie, Alaynah, Sister Jones, Brent, and the Marriott's

To get us going, our Youth Conference Coordinators, Brother and Sister Hinton, had created a fun Risk-type game where we had to work together to conquer a land. We used the bandanas to tie ourselves together in groups of two to four. The gym was filled with our team-colored balloons and the challenge was to get to a balloon while being tied together, pop it, and then either take the sticker and place it strategically on the map or read one of the challenges that were in the balloons. The green team was very fast and finished before everyone . . . however, that gave the other teams more time to conquer other areas on the map where the blue team eventually won. It was a lot of fun and a great way to get us working together.

Sister and Brother Hinton explaining the rules

Chandi, Kynz and Jason

Kaycee, Caitlyn and Tyler

Alaynah, Allie, Brent and Paytene

Braden, Jessica and Maddy

Brother Toki and Michael

Juliana, Jayden and Patch

Sam, Denver and Natalie

Sister Marriott and Sister Clark

Brother Toki and Michael

Brother Toki really going after those balloons

Alaynah racing to get her stickers up.

Feet tangled up . . . let's go!

Paytene, Brent, Allie, Alaynah

Juliana and Patch working together to help keep Jayden from falling

Jason and Kynz

Working strategy on the map

After the game, we were ready to start serving. In our colored teams, we went out into our ward neighborhood with a list of services that we could provide and point values assigned to each. We had two hours to see how much service we could provide and who could get the most points. We did a lot of weeding, washed cars, mowed lawns, walked a dog, cleaned a microwave, all sorts of things. It was great to talk and serve our neighbors and they seemed to really appreciate what we were able to do. In the end the green team was victorious with the most points, but everyone was a winner by helping so many people out.

Sister Jones, Brent, Paytene and Alaynah

Brent, Allie, and Alaynah

Kynz, Chandi, Brother Toki, Jason and Michael

Next was lunch where we took a much needed break to gear up for our afternoon.

Juliana

James and Brent

Jessica

Keeley, Maddy and Alaynah

Allie and Caitlyn

Chandi and Kynz

Michael and Brother Toki

Braden and Patch

Jason and Teem

Natalie, Jayden, and Denver

Sister and Brother Marriott

Sister Clark and Kaycee

After lunch we were ready to head to our next challenge, the CLAS ropes course. We stayed in our groups and had the chance to do a variety of challenges that really pushed us. They tested our courage, our faith in ourselves and in each other, and helped us to realize that we can do hard things and also to realize that we are never alone. We are here to help, serve and look out for each other.

Instruction at the CLAS ropes course

Kaycee, Tyler and Brother Jones

Brother Christensen, Teem, Brother Tok, Kynz, Jason and Caitlyn trying to work on the ring

Chandi and Jason

Denver and Sam

Shall we Dance . . . Natalie and Keeley trying to balance on a thin beam

Jannelle and Jessica

Braden working hard to figure out what size of boards went where in order to build a bridge for others to cross.

Maddy and Natalie

Allie and Alaynah

Brent

Juliana

Jayden

James

Patch working hard to help everyone across

Our fearless leaders, Brother and Sister Hinton

Juliana and James working together to get across a thin cable

Sam and Natalie

Brother Toki, Michael, Teem, Brother Jones, Caitlyn, Kynz, Jason, Chandi and Kaycee - Their challenge was to distribute their weight evenly so the long was evenly balanced.

Chandi and Kaycee

Juliana, Allie, Jayden, Brent and Alaynah

Brent and Juliana

Race to get the ball down . . . we had the record breaking record of 4.2 seconds. Keeley and Braden are visible in this pic.

Jannelle, Denver and Natalie

Maddy, Keeley, Natalie and Jannelle

Tyler overcoming his fear of jumping off and flying through the air in the Leap of Faith challenge.

Jason after his leap of faith

Paytene getting ready to conquer her fear of heights to ride the zipline

Michael ready to go

Brother Toki who did some Samoan chest pounding and chants to get himself geared up to take his leap of faith.

Kaycee

Patch going for the ring. This was a true leap of faith as you notice that he is missing something very important on his head . . . a helmet!

Kynz

Patch, Denver, Jannelle, Jayden, Natalie and Maddy

Caitlyn

Chandi flying through the air after taking a "leap of faith"

Allie and Alaynah

Maddy on the giant swing

Juliana

Brent, Jessica and Jannelle

Maddy and Alaynah

Patch and Allie

Sister Marriott getting all strapped in.

After an incredible time at the ropes course, we came back to the church to talk about what we had learned and we had a little time before dinner where we got to enjoy some refreshing otter pops and play frisbee in the parking lot. Even Bishop Campos took off his jacket to join us. then it was on to get cleaned up for dinner. The Hinton's served a delicious meal of chicken cordon bleu, baked potatoes and green beans. We also fested on yummy rolls and ended with a piece of "Fight for the Right" chocolate cake and ice cream.

Jayden, Brother and Sister Marriott, Chandi and Kynz

Jason, Braden, Patch and Michael

Allie and Caitlyn

Paytene and Jessica

Teem and Juliana

Sister Sorenson and Sister Clark

Natalie, Maddy, Jannelle, and Alaynah

Kaycee and Denver

Jones Family: Meredith, Nick and Berkley

Sam and Keeley

Brother Tilby and Brother Libberton

We concluded with a talk by Brother Libberton about the physical and spiritual battles we face and how to overcome those. We had an awesome testimony meeting and some final thoughts by Bishop Campos and Brother Jones. It was a great day and we appreciate all of those who helped to make it possible.

Braden and Patch at the end of a long, wonderful day.