Book of Mormon Experience

So it's been a little over a week since Steve and I returned from our Stake's Book of Mormon Experience with the Youth. We were called in February to be "Lehi & Sariah" of a family of youth during this year's Youth Conference. When we got the call I was so excited. The Stake had been talking about this experience for months and I was so sad to miss it when I was released from the Young Women's organization. This was my chance to participate, and I was pumped!

The experience turned out to be all I had hoped for and more. I think I actually got lucky being a Sariah because I was able to be right in the thick of things, while the ward leaders didn't get the same experience. After many meetings and trainings, we finally got to meet the kids in our family and jump in!

Although most of the Lehi's & Sariah's said this about their families, we had the best! They really were the best group of kids! We had one of the few large groups with 6 girls and 6 boys. It was a little awkward at first getting to know each other, but everyone put themselves out there and we clicked in no time.

Here are our kids on the first day. We had just met each other and we were still trying to warm up to each other. (I don't know who the little guy is on the top row on the left side. It was a hot day and he had found a place to sit in the shade and nothing we could do could get him to leave it.)

Our experience was filled with presentations of stories from the Book of Mormon, team building games, discussions within our family, water/flour/paint fights, great food, and so much more. Coming home was a relief and a challenge. I really grew to love my kids and had a surprisingly hard time telling them goodbye.

My favorite part of the whole experience was the last morning we were awakened by the sounds of earthquakes at about 4 am. The whole camp was shaking with the sound. It really was incredible. We gathered our family and went down to the ampitheater. We waited there for a bit in the dark and the sounds stopped. We then heard a voice who spoke in a language we didn't understand 2 times and finally in english announcing the coming of Christ. Just then a spot light shone on the roof of the stage and Christ walked up and greeted us as an audience and spoke the words as we read them from the Book of Mormon. It was incredible. He came down from the roof and called his diciples from the audience to join him. (They were the bishops from all of the wards and the Stake Presidency). He then left the stage and began to walk throughout the crowd, touching us and hugging us. He was talking the whole time. Truly, this experience was incredible. After he left, there was silence among all of us and the spirit was extremely strong. There weren't many dry eyes. We were instructed to go back to our camp fires and read the account of Christ coming to the America's. Never before has that passage been so real to me. We talked as a family about what we had just experienced and then turned the time over to our kids for a small testimony meeting.

It truly was one of the most special experiences I have had in my life. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to meet these kids and feel of their spirits. I am glad to be a small part of their lives as they have become a big part of mine. Together we were reminded what is most important and what we should be striving for.

I love my Savior and his gospel. I love that I know I will be happy if I follow his teachings and strive to be like him. I know that He is always watching and hoping we will do what is right and return to him. I hope I can make him happy. I can't wait to really see his face and give him the hug that I wanted to give the actor who portrayed him. One day!