Youth Conference - Palmyra NY

So I have been neglecting the blog... Catch up time.  Here are some pictures from our youth conference in June.  Dane and I went and were counselors.  We had so much fun with our group and had the great opportunity to go to the church sites in Palmyra, NY.

 On the long bus ride down... Yeah.

 Our little devotional on the top of the Hill Camorah. You can tell we were all very focused.

 Inside the Smith family home.  This is the Smith family Bible... The one that Joseph read James 1:5 out of.

 Walking from the old Smith home to the new one you catch a glimpse of the temple over looking the Smith property and Sacred Grove.

 Inside the "new" Smith family home. One time a mob was trying to come steal the plates from Joseph and he pulled up a few bricks, dug a hole, and hid the plates under this fire place.

 This is the kitchen.

 And onto the Sacred Grove. It's the only picture we have from this trip.

 This is the printing shop where the first Book of Mormon was published.

 And right upstairs was the printing press area.

 On our way out I saw this on the step... I just had to.  In honor of my only niece.

 This is the Whitmer farm.  Some of the translation happened here.

 This is the main room in the Whitmer home where the church was organized.

 Our stellar group.

 The Palmyra Temple.  Dane was able to take part of our group up to the temple grounds for a discussion about the temple and what it means.  It was very beneficial to the youth in that discussion.  I heard about that discussion during the testimony meeting from our youth.  I was with a few others from our group in the grove.

 It was a rainy day, so after all our nightly activities we decided to go sliding down a hill on our bellies.  It was awesome.  I went head to head with one of our guys, unfortunately I didn't slide as far as he did.  He got bragging rights, and I mangled the bracelet I was wearing.

See how soaked Dane is!  :) Dane did most of his sliding down in the puddles.  He didn't go down the hill side as much as we did.  Other leaders saw our shirts and just said, "nice..." or "that's a good looking shirt."  It was pretty funny.  

The next day we dominated the Palmyra Temple and did tons of baptisms.  Shortly after that we packed up and started heading home.  Other than a lack of sleep, it was a great experience.