Faith Quest 2014

Because Tom is the Bishop of our ward, we had the opportunity to attend our stake's Youth Conference the last week of July. 

Every 4 years the stake plans a BIG youth conference and instead of doing a pioneer trek, this year they decided to do an MTC experience to help the youth in the stake prepare to serve full-time missions.  

Since President Monson announced the age change relating to missionary work, some of the young men are choosing to go on missions right out of high school, so this Youth conference was to help these young men and women be prepared for the mission experiences that lie ahead. 

Each youth in the stake between age 14-18 was called on a mission.  

10 mission presidents and their wives were called from the different wards in our stake.  Most of the missions were based on where the mission president served their mission years earlier, so the kids were called to Germany, Japan, Indonesia, Australia, US, New Zealand, England, Mexico, Canada and Italy.

We left early on a Wednesday morning and drove down to Salt Lake on 3 buses. The youth conference was based at the University of Utah's student housing/olympic housing, so we arrived in Salt Lake, got checked into our dorm rooms and then walked to a big field by the Institute to have some Olympic games. The missions competed against each other and it seemed to be a great bonding experience. 

The weather was actually pretty perfect for being outdoors, 

overcast and a little cooler.

They had a lot of water games and of course Tom got right in the middle of it!

This bridge building game was a great team building experience and really amazing to watch.

Here we are sporting our BYU gear in enemy territory at the U of U

Go Cougs!

After the Olympics all the youth gathered to hear Chad Lewis, former BYU and NFL football player talk to them.

He is a great speaker and did such a great job kicking off the youth conference.

After Chad Lewis spoke, the stake barbecued hamburgers and hot dogs for us at the outdoor pavilion, then we walked back to our housing (1 mile uphill) and changed into church clothes for the evening fireside with Elder Lowell Snow of the seventy.

We walked back to the Institute building (1 mile downhill) and had another fantastic speaker and fireside. 

Here are our neighbors the Manwaring's ready to walk to the fireside.

Jed served his mission in New Zealand and they made "lava lava's" for all the young men in their mission. Pretty cute huh?

Thursday morning, Tom was asked to teach a class at the Institute for the mini MTC experience on "study skills". He had to teach 5, 30 minute classes.

I was his assistant, and we did that Thursday and Friday morning.

After the MTC experience the bus took us downtown for a picnic lunch at the park and then we toured 
the Conference Center,

and temple square and watched the Joseph Smith movie 

in the Joseph Smith Building and walked around City Creek.

While the youth were touring the Family history center and church history museum, Tom and I took the opportunity to be free agents . 

We chose to go to the Church History Library and do some of my own family history.

It was a highlight of the trip to find my great grandfather, Isaac Fox's, missionary journals and other papers.

I had discovered that they were in the Church History Library last year and I viewed the microfiche of the journals and documents while I was visiting Patty but I was unable to see the real thing because 

I was there too late in the afternoon.

This time, I made sure to have enough time for the Library to 

get the materials for me.

I had to watch a special video on how to handle old books and documents and then I ordered the materials and the library brought me a box filled with the two missionary journals, some documents and this Autograph book that my Great grandmother, Elizabeth Zimmerman 

gave Isaac when he went on his 2nd mission

to the Sandwich Islands.
(aka Hawaii)

 

What a thrill to actually hold and touch these jounals, books and papers and read their contents and see Isaac's beautiful handwriting.

I got special permission to take a picture but I didn't want to push my luck and ask to photograph the journals too, maybe next time.

We are in the process of transcribing Isaac's journals so it was so exciting to get to see them and read them in person. It truly has "turned my heart to my fathers".

I am blessed with such faithful missionary ancestors.

Thursday night we had another fireside at the Institute with Ted E Brewerton.

Friday morning we had the same schedule and taught the other 5 groups at the MTC and then took a bus downtown for a picnic in the park and then we toured the Church Office building

Views from the top

and Brigham Young Park.

Hollyhocks are my favorite flower because when I was 6, my Dad and I went on a walk (while he was recovering from back surgery) and he showed me how to make a doll out of the blossoms.

We gathered for a group picture at the Reflection pool later that afternoon

It was quite a feat getting all 140 of these kids to cooperate.

Here's a picture of all the mission presidents.

Friday night was skit night.

The different missions were given a bag full of props and a Book of Mormon story and had to come up with a 5 minute skit.

They were all pretty creative.

We ate most of our meals in the University of Utah's version of the Canon center.

The food was pretty good, but much smaller than BYU's cafeteria.

Another highlight for me was the sunrise hike to Ensign Peak. On Saturday morning, we all had to get up at 5 am, load the bus, and drive to the trail head. We were on the bus that had mechanical problems. The bus driver tried and tried to get the bus going but it wouldn't move. Bishop Rich suggested that the youth pray and shortly thereafter, the bus started and got us up the hill to the trail head. It was a beautiful morning and we hiked up to the top of Ensign peak and what a surprise to see that we were each personally greeted by Brother Brigham. 

What a thrill to hear Brother Brigham's words as we looked out over the Salt Lake valley and saw what he envisioned 167 years ago. We were on the trail a little later than planned because of the bus problems, but the timing worked out perfectly as the sun rose up over the mountain at the perfect time to light Brother Brigham's face as he spoke about the priesthood keys still being on the earth after the martyrdom of Joseph Smith. 

It was a powerful experience and one I won't soon forget. 

Coincidentally, the bus that got us up to the trail-head, again wouldn't start and we had to divide the youth up on the two other buses and in other cars to get them back to the University of Utah. 

Another tender mercy that it got us there at all.

 

 

 

 

The youth and leaders of the stake each signed this banner, that we 

held high to signify our commitment to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

 After the hike we had breakfast at the church at the trail head,

drove back to the U of U and showered and packed up, loaded our stuff on the bus and walked back to the Institute for the final testimony meeting.

It was a great youth conference.

I think all of the youth had a spiritual experience.

I was so glad that we got to go and participate.

We had our final lunch in the cafeteria and then loaded the bus for home.

Our bus had more than a few problems, one of which was no air conditioning,

so it was a long, hot drive back to Boise.

Here we are stopped at the rest stop and Tom trying to cool off on the grass.

 

We got back to Boise in time for Tom to pick up his new wheels.

We had ordered this car from Mazda and they had to get it from Oregon and it came the day we left for Salt Lake, so we stopped by the car dealer as soon as we got off the bus and they gave us our new car.

It only took two years to make a decision on this little beauty, but I think Tom feels like he made a pretty good one.