Several months ago in a Bishop's Youth Committee Meeting, the youth decided they really wanted to attend General Conference in person. So we spent the past few months planning all of the details, including setting aside some budget money, figuring out where to stay, what to eat, when to leave and come back, etc.
This past weekend it was finally time. We took off right after Seminary on Friday morning -- well, that was the plan anyway. It was pouring rain so it took longer than expected to get everything loaded into the cars. But eventually we got on the road about an hour later than planned.
The rain stopped after a couple hours and, thankfully, before we got to the mountains in Tahoe. Our first stop was in Sparks, Nevada to stretch and get some gas. We then went to Winnemucca and stopped for lunch. It was our first of many meals of sandwiches and chips. After that, we made it to Elko where we gassed up again and then went the rest of the way to Utah. We had dinner at Pizza Pie Cafe in Bountiful and it was the best meal of the whole trip. I asked if they had a group rate and their manager gave us their all-you-can-eat buffet for $6 per person with $0.99 for drinks. It is normally $8.25 per person and $1.99 for drinks so that saved us about $90. The kids all loved the food and they had the most amazing dessert pizzas.
We then split up and the guys all went to Kevin and Kellie's house (Jen's brother) and stayed in their basement. They loved being there and playing ping pong and double-shot. The girls went to two different houses south of Salt Lake.
We got some sleep (not enough) and then headed into Salt Lake for conference on Saturday morning. We only had about 10 tickets for that session but were able to get a few more so that all of the girls and their leaders were able to watch it in the Conference Center. The guys all went to the Visitors' Center and watched the session in a theater. It had really comfortable seats and lots of leg room so we definitely weren't complaining. We only needed a few extra tickets for the afternoon session so we spent a while holding up a sign that said we were from California and needed tickets. We ended up getting what we needed for the afternoon session and also a few for Sunday morning. There were lots of protesters that had pretty strange signs. Also, there was a guy dressed up like the devil and he had a sign saying he was Satan and these street preachers were his missionaries. He was taking pictures with people and was pretty hilarious.
We then went back to the cars for sandwiches and chips (although we forgot the bread in Brother Smith's car so we had to buy some more for that meal). After attending the afternoon session, we went to the Food Court at City Center Mall. Us and about 10,000 other people, it seems. We asked the kids to choose what they wanted and then the adults split up and everyone waited in line for their food. We barely had enough time to scarf it down before needing to head back for the Priesthood session. Somehow Ethan Smith broke the rubber heel off of his shoes but his Dad found him some black duct tape and he wore that for the rest of the trip.
We had enough tickets for Priesthood session so that was nice to not have to worry about getting in for that one. After Priesthood session, we met one of the missionaries that had served in our ward for a while (Elder Wassink), chatted with him and then found an ice cream place where we could all get gelato and hang out and talk. We then went back to the homes to get some more sleep (though not nearly enough). Parker was still using his crutches (most of the time) from his sprained ankle but he was able to get around pretty well.
Here we are all ready for Priesthood session to start.
Most of our tickets were pretty far away but it was still awesome to be in the same room as our prophet and the apostles.
A few of us had better seats for the Sunday morning session where we got to listen to Music and the Spoken Word before the Sunday morning session.
After the Sunday morning session, we went over to the temple for a couple pictures in the rain before heading back to our cars. Here we are trying to stay dry.
This is a picture of the guys in the theater seating on Saturday morning (singing the rest hymn).
After taking pictures, we went to Pioneer Park and had lunch (yep, sandwiches and chips). We also fed a few of the homeless that hang around Pioneer Park. Everyone packed up an extra sandwich for the road so we wouldn't have to stop and spend money buying food on the way home (since it was Sunday).
We listened to the Sunday afternoon session in our cars on the way home. We eventually made it back to Concord between 11 pm and midnight, exhausted but with great memories of a fun and inspiring trip. The young women were able to view all 3 of their sessions in the Conference Center and the young men viewed 3 of 4 sessions in the Conference Center. That was pretty good since we didn't have enough to get everyone in any of the sessions (except the Priesthood session) when we left Concord on Friday morning. We have great youth in our ward and it was exciting to be together on this adventure where we got to listen to counsel from our church leaders.
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