I've been having a very busy kind of fun lately. My sister-in-law and her family that had been living with us for a year and a half moved out to Warrenton at the beginning of July and we helped them with that. Then I spent the next week and a half fixing up, painting, installing molding, etc. downstairs where they had been living, in preparation for the Centreville Stake Youth Conference. Paul is the leader over the 16 and 17 year old boys at church (including Quinn), so we decided to host the boys to stay here at night while the Youth Conference was going on Thursday through today.
The youth gathered together to do several service projects (landscaping up at the temple, cleaning up small family graveyards, and recording the data they found on the headstones), and then had classes in the afternoons and activities in the evenings to help the kids all get to know each other and learn new skills (from genealogy to swing dancing). There were about 160 14-17 year olds, and they had a great time dancing, eating, and playing games. I was asked to help with the conference, but I must say I had a blast myself. Today at the conclusion there was a testimony meeting, and many of the youth got up and shared what they had felt during the conference, and the Spirit was very strong. They were truly affected by what they had seen and done. You may have heard the term "the spirit of Elijah," the Old Testament prophet who prophesied that "hearts of the children would turn to their fathers." Many of the youth mentioned that while they had been searching old census records, and cleaning the headstones at the cemeteries, they had felt connected to these people. I thought that was pretty neat -- they were touched by the spirit of Elijah.
While I was up at the temple we went through the Visitor's Center, and there is right now a very moving exhibit on display by artist Angela Johnson. It is a bronze sculpture exhibit on the life of Christ. They are exquisite! I especially loved "Christ Walking on Water." It is about a 3 feet by 3 feet chunk of water made out of bronze, with a very majestic-looking Christ walking across it. I can't imagine sculpting water and making it look good, but she did it. AMAZING!
