Journey to Eternity

My sweet friend Katie and I were asked to be the paparazzi for youth Conference this weekend. It was a two-day event, but I was only able to do Friday because Ava had a dance recital on Saturday. So, after getting lost at the beginning, we finally found the location for kick-off. The youth were walking to the Temple...a distance of 11 miles. We began at a park in Saratoga Springs where the youth had breakfast, were organized into groups, created team names and mottos and then ran through banners to begin their journey.
 

 

 

Once they arrived at their first rest stop (the Lehi Sports Park), they played horseshoes and made some trail mix...all with metaphorical meaning related to the temple, of course.

Then it was off for the longest leg...5 miles to the American Fork Lions Park for lunch. During this leg, the kids had to cross the freeway overpass...it made all the leaders extremely nervous.

The kids then had a quick 2-3 mile jog to the Family History Center and then on to the local Senior Center.  One of the fabulous women in our ward was celebrating her anniversary this day and her husband is a resident...so some of the kids planned a talent to share with all the residents to help Peggy and her hubby celebrate!

 

 

The kids then had a mile of silence.  They were instructed to walk silently for one mile and to reflect on how they could focus their energies on having clean hands and pure hearts.  Then, they wrote their commitments onto tags, attached them to balloons and let them fly!  They were almost at their journey's end!

 

 

 

 

 

It was only a hop, skip and jump up the hill to the Mt. Timpanogos Temple.  The kids were sent off in their groups, several minutes apart so they would all arrive in separate groups...but they started running and everyone arrived at the same time.  We took pictures of each of the youth holding a door to the temple, symbolizing that they will commit to entering the temple as they reach mission or marriage-age.  Then, it was time for meeting their families at the church pavilion for dinner!  So many families came to support them.  We even had one sweet sister come and help serve dinner, even though she moved out of our ward several months ago.  It was such a spiritual journey and I'm so grateful I was a part of it.