Our YSA, Young Single Adult, Conference was scheduled for the last weekend in September. We had three young people and two former members from our Branch who expressed a desire to attend the Conference. Because of the distance to drive them there, we decided to go along as chaperones for the three day event.
Thursday, we spent most of the day shopping for a variety of things to go in the Santa Christmas Boxes that the YSA were doing for a service project at the Conference. Many of the things in the boxes were school supplies which needy children will need when they start the new school year in January. We got enough things so we could have a box for each of our YSA from our Branch plus Lynn and me.
We thought we would get an early start to the conference since we had a 5-6 hour drive ahead of us and still had to pick up one of our members who was riding with us. Thursday afternoon, Lynn discovered that the two back tires kept going flat, so he left at 7 Friday morning to have them checked. I finished packing and had everything ready to go in the trunk when he arrived. After a couple of other stops, we were finally ready to leave.
The camp was at the Konka Camp outside of Rustenburg. We arrived about 3:00 in the afternoon. We got checked into our rooms and were surprised to find that we had been assigned a very nice suite, compared to the other rooms. The room was very large! It had a King bed, tub and shower, fridge, TV and our own private porch. The door had a placard with our names on it. We felt really special. Our other members arrived shortly, and got checked into their rooms. Some had 8 girls in a room and had to go down the hall to the bathrooms and showers. There were approximately 450 YSAs at the conference.
as well as the dance. The music was BLASTING loud!
We had to step out every little while to see if we still had our hearing.
Part of their fun was getting Sister Baxter to join in the dance moves with them.
One member came up to me and asked if he could use our phone because he was out of minutes. He wanted to call his wife, who is an investigator, but says church is boring. She likes the loud music etc. at her church. He wanted her to know that we do listen to loud music, just not at church.
Saturday was pretty much a free activity day. You could choose what you wanted to do. They had soccer, rugby, cricket, archery, swimming, zip line, canoeing, rock climbing wall, repelling, obstacle course, and some other high tight wire, log walking things, which made me have a sick stomach just to watch them. The kids had a ball. Everyone got a little sunburned.
Getting our instructions for the day from the Conference Director.
Elder Baxter trying his hand at Cricket.
Trying my hand at archery. It's been a day or two
Lorraine & Maggy getting going with the oars.
That takes some type of bravery, even if you are in a harness!
Another activity we didn't stand in line to do! They are about 30 feet up!
Human was even brave enough to dive off from the bridge.
This walkway led to the start of the zip line.
After zipping high above the water, the zip line brought you down to the ground.
Another segment of the above the ground obstacle course.
At 4:00 we met in our room to cover, decorate, and fill our boxes. Only Maggie and Lorraine showed up. We stopped for a few minutes for dinner, then came back to finish. Because the girls dorm was about 3 blocks away, we drove them to their rooms so they could get ready for the dance.
The two boy decorated boxes.
Happiness is filling Christmas Boxes for needy children!
Laura and a friend
Laura and Human - brother & sister from our Branch
Best Female Costume
Best Male Costume
Best Couple Costume
The kids did a wonderful job of dressing up. They had fantastic costumes! The committee checked out the costumes throughout the dance and later gave a prize to the winners. They gave a prize for the "Best Dressed Couple" then said they had a honorary couple award for the "Most Dancing Couple", which went to Elder and Sister Baxter because they thought we had been "dancing up a storm"! Not! But by Elder Baxter's standards, maybe it was! Congratulations to him for even dancing! :)
Honorary Award - Most Dancing Couple
Sunday, they had a large Sacrament Meeting. The decorated dance hall was transformed into a chapel room with podium and all. There was a Stake President from the Binoni Stake and the Roodipoort Stake that spoke. When we came in, they asked us to come join them on the stand so we could see the beautiful sight of young people. And it was! We were glad they didn't call on us to speak or bear our testimonies, but we were secretly gathering some thoughts, just in case. (We have learned to do this whenever we go to church)
Sister Jennifer's daughter. She going to medical school.
We took pictures of our kids after the meeting before we went to load our car. We picked up our box lunch and went to the girls dorm to eat with Maggie and Lorraine before Maggie had to leave with her group to return to Polokwane. Maggie was in Nelspruit until last December when she decided to leave her live in boyfriend and take her little girl and move back home so she could live the gospel. She has continued to grow in the gospel. We are very proud of her. None of our young people found the "person of their dreams", but they had wonderful time! That was what we were hoping for, so we felt like it was a success.
We arrived home about 8:30 after dropping Lorainne at her home. We received word,that one of Elders and one of the KaNyamazane Elders were being transferred on Tuesday. We will miss Elder Martin, but we know he will do a marvelous in opening a new area of the mission.
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