Oct 24, 2011

2nd Youth Conference @ BYU

My growing up years were filled with numerous spiritual experiences and opportunities for leadership. As a young member of the Priesthood I had opportunities to go to Stake Youth Conferences. My first when I was 14 that was held outside of the Uintah Basin was a Region Youth Conference held at BYU. I remember coming to it only a little and the events still do not come to mind easily but when I was a Priest 2 years later and we repeated the Region Youth Conference it stayed with me a lot more.
That year I was asked to participate on the Region Youth Council and to help plan the events that would take place while we were here at BYU. I remember going to Roosevelt for the planning meeting as it was the center of the region which included all of the Uintah Basin Stakes of the LDS Church. I had 4 or 5 other members of our Stake Council that would go with me and we were responsible for planning certain parts of the event.
There were basically just a few major highlights that I wish to tell here.
1st was the fact that Marie got to be part of the group attending the conference from our ward and of course I quite liked her company at that time. (I must admit that I probably didn’t like it as well as I do now but after all of these years together there are some very obvious reasons as to why.) Anyway it was fun for me to be able to plan events that I knew we were going to get to do together while at conference. I planned the classes that I would be over and made it so that we woud be able to go to them together.
Then there was the responsibilities at the conference to ensure the other youth were getting where they needed to go and I enlisted her help to be with me as we would sign up participants and then later direct traffic to the events. There was also a the evening events like the firesides and dances where I would be able to plan being with her as well.
The one event that sticks out though with the most vivid of memories was the talent show we had for one of the firesides. Our stake was asked to come up with I think a couple of numbers and one of them involved Marie and I. A young man form our ward named Kevin Wilkinson was a pretty good guitar player so we asked him to come up with a number. He agreed to do it but only if some of the rest of us would help. (It still sticks in my mind that Rhonda was asked to participate as well to who he later also got married and still is with her today living in St George, Utah.) What made this most memorable however was his choice of a song to sing. I had to get it approved by the council and they did approve it but I still don’t know why. Anyway it was a song titled “Oh Ruby, Don’t take your love to town.” Now if you know the words you would understand my reservations because it is all about a woman married to a veteran of a war that was handicapped and because she lacked the love she thought she needed she would often leave at night and go out to find it with someone else. Well the words were not the most uplifting but the music was pretty and it was fun to sing yet to this day I still remember the fear I felt about singing it at youth conference. The number went over OK as far as I can remember but I still can’t really feel good about having sung it. It has made me much more aware however as life has continued for me as to the influence that music can have on the mind and I am often moved to tears when singing ones like “How Great Thou Art” (which wasn’t in the LDS Hymn book by the way at that point in history), or “Because I Have Been Given Much”, or “I Believe in Christ” (also a new addition since that time in the church hymns).
It was a good experience though and I often reflect as to why I was so lucky as to be a part of that planning committee because what I took away from that conference was much more significant for me than the first one due to the fact that I had been asked to help plan for it and direct it while at the conference.