Decisions Determine Destiny

I love my calling in the Young Women's!  It is great to be with the youth in our ward; especially when two of them belong to Brett and I!  The theme for the youth this year is "Stand Ye in Holy Places".  For youth conference this year we took our youth floating the river form Big Springs to Max Inn.  None of the youth in our ward had floated that stretch before so it was fun to take them to a new place.

We loaded up on Friday morning and made our way up to Island Park to begin our adventure.  We were nervous about the weather because it had rained the night before, but the weather cooperated with many getting sunburns.

After floating we took the kids to our camping spot where yummy dutch oven chicken, potatoes, scones, and watermelon were on the menu for the evening.  (*Best part of it all-we had ward members volunteer to come up and cook our meal!  It was terrific as a leader to enjoy the float with the kids and not feel stressed to get back to camp and cook the meal.)  Before dinner the kids set up their camping spots.

We had a terrific fireside that night.  Just before the fireside everyone was trying to find their spot in the shade.

Julianne Hill came and spoke to our youth.  We had given her some ideas of things we wanted addressed and she tied it all into the word "STAND" to tie into our theme.  Following are the things she talked about:
S-SAVIOR
T-TESTIMONY
A-ATONEMENT
N-BE NICE
D-DECISIONS
The "D" is what led to the overall theme-"Decisions Determine Destiny"!  It was fabulous!
President Monson said this:
This is your world. The future is in your hands. The outcome is up to you. The way to exaltation is not a freeway featuring unlimited vision, unrestricted speeds, and untested skills. Rather, it is known by many forks and turnings, sharp curves, and controlled speeds. Your driving skill will be put to the test. Are you ready? You are driving. You haven’t passed this way before. Fortunately, the Master Highway Builder, even our Heavenly Father, has provided a road map showing the route to follow. He has placed markers along the way to guide you to your destination.
Perhaps you may recognize some of His signs:
• “Honour thy father and thy mother” (Exodus 20:12).
• “Search the scriptures; for . . . they are they which
testify of me” (John 5:39).
• “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his
righteousness” (Matthew 6:33).
• “Be ye clean” (3 Nephi 20:41).
That evil one too has placed road signs to frustrate your progress and to lead you from the path of truth
into detours of sin. His detours all lead to a dead end. Have you noticed his markers?
• Just this once won’t matter.
• It can’t hurt anyone but me.
• My love is mine to give; my life is mine to live.
• Times have changed.
Now we see coming into focus the responsibility to choose, that inevitable crisis at the crossroads of life.
He who would lead you down waits patiently for a dark night, a wavering will, a confused conscience, a mixed-up mind. Are you prepared to make the decisions at the crossroads? I can’t stress too strongly that decisions determine destiny. You can’t make eternal decisions without eternal consequences.
May I provide a simple formula by which you can measure the choices which confront you. It’s easy to
remember, sometimes difficult to apply: You can’t be right by doing wrong; you can’t be wrong by doing
right. Your personal conscience always warns you as a friend before it punishes you as a judge.

“Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me.

“But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.

“But if it be not right you shall have no such feelings, but you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong.” (D&C 9:7–9.)

The rest of the evening consisted of games around the campfire and smores.  The kids loved the name game and wanted to play it over and over.

Saturday was our service day.  The youth made rice bags to donate to the nursing home and then we went and visited residents at the nursing home for about an hour.  One of our leaders and some young women had sewn three sides before we went.  Then at camp the kids had to fill the bags with rice...

and then sew them up.  We didn't know if the boys would enjoy this, but they did and they went right to work on them.

They each had a partner and it turned out being a super fun activity for the kids!  The completed project:

The nursing home was excited to get these too.  They put them in the microwave to warm them up and then the residents can put them on anywhere they have aches and pains. To finish youth conference we ate at Big Juds and headed on home!  We have great youth in our ward!