Youth Conference: Footsteps of Lehi

Hi, friends,

 I just got back from Youth Conference, 3 days and 2 nights camping in the Negev desert Bedoin-style with 19 youth and 10 leaders.   And 30 spoons.  Washed in sand.  I haven't heard of anyone getting sick afterwards, but I was really wishing for some biodegradable dish soap, especially after the camel licked the water tank we were all using to refill our water bottles!

Five  stars for the food, the bonding among the youth, and the moonlit night as our ceiling.  (Riding a camel gets 1 star--good view but painful, worse than an uncomfortable bike seat.)  Five stars for John Howell, Kevin Mayberry, and Mark Morrison, branch presidents who gathered youth and led out with support from Dennis Lifferth, district president.   Five stars for Erin Belnap and Larissa Properzi who traipsed all over West Jerusalem to find a dozen sleeping bags, which kept us mostly dry in a drizzle.  Five stars for Ben Midbar tours, for welcoming us to their desert, and for showing us that we really don't need as much as we use, that teens can actually survive 3 days without cell phones and processed foods, and grownups can actually survive even when their cell phone cameras are out of battery.  And five stars for the youth (including Amanda and Emily) who reached out to each other and hiked, sang, and played with fellow saints from Haifa to Beer Sheva.   

The desert seems to contain a whole lotta nothing, but by looking closer, we can see that it is full of space, full of stars, full of amazing creatures who are well-suited for its challenges, and full of spirit--think of all the prophets who came from the desert, but very few felt the need to build temples there because they considered the desert a temple already.  No pictures can do it justice, but here are a couple taken before my battery died!