By WESLIE STRATTON
Moapa Valley Progress
The LDS Logandale Stake held its annual Youth Conference last weekend which involved more than 200 local teens in a variety of faith- and character-building experiences. The conference incorporated various activities and projects for Moapa Valley youth and offered instruction to both youth and their parents.
On Friday evening, about 360 people; both youth and their parents; attended a special program at the LDS Logandale Stake Center. The guest speaker for the evening was Valerie Dimick of Las Vegas. Dimick, who has worked for many years in the family counseling field, spoke to the crowd about the power of positive thoughts and how those thoughts bring about actions that lead to success and happiness in life.
Youth audience member Abigail Wallace said she enjoyed listening to Dimick. She said that she had learned the value of reacting positively to negative events in her life.
“I need to react positively regardless of the situation,” she said.
Likewise, Josie Delgadillo learned the value of an individual’s thoughts during Dimick’s talk. She learned that thoughts stem from experiences and things one has seen and heard and that they don’t just come out of nowhere.
“Our thoughts matter,” Delgadillo said.
On Saturday morning, more than 200 youth gathered bright and early at the Stake Center. This crowd was divided into two groups.
One group travelled to the Overton Pioneer Cemetery to begin a service project to clean up the historic cemetery.
“We’re cleaning up along and under the oleanders,” youth leader Lauralyn Robison said. “Just cleaning it up and making it look better.”
Robison said that, during the work project, the youth were permitted to seek out their ancestor’s headstones and clean those specifically. But they were instructed not to disturb any others, Robison said.
Youth Conference participant KC Evans said that the service project was his favorite part of the conference up to that point.
“I like the outdoors,” Evans said. “It’s nice to get outdoors and do work.”
The other half of the youth participated in family history classes at the Stake Center. Family History aficionado, Heather Hoffman, who is also a teacher at Mack Lyon Middle School, instructed youth on techniques in gathering family history. She introduced her classes with a quote by Elder Richard G. Scott, of the LDS Council of the Twelve. “Set aside those things in your life that don’t really matter. Decide to do something that will have eternal consequences.”
Hoffman said that, through participation in the various classes, the youth would learn the value of family history work, temple work and “getting to know those who went before us.”
Hoffman told a story about making the discovery that she closely resembles a grandmother whom she had never met. She said that through family history work other participants might discover physical or personality traits that resemble an ancestor.
In a class titled “Placing Memories in Family Search” Logandale resident Kent Barlow discussed the value of historical photographs and information. He instructed the youth on how to upload these records to the FamilySearch.org website which was developed by the LDS Church. He also explained to the youth how fun it can be to connect with an ancestor that you have never met. He explained that by compiling stories, audio, pictures and more on the FamilySearch.org website, those things can be preserved for future generations.
“This is cool stuff,” he said. “This is wonderful technology, it just has to be used.”
Barlow’s mother Susan took participants through the process of recording memories and stories on the site so that they would know how to do it on their own.
On Saturday evening, more than 400 youth from both Moapa and Virgin Valleys gathered again at the Stake Center for more instruction and activities. The evening’s featured speaker was Hank Smith who engaged the audience’s attention with his remarks on the subject of holding fast to one’s convictions.
Smith told the youth that they should seek experiences that would strengthen their faith and their beliefs in God. Those kinds of experiences would always bring greater strength than just seeking for opinions, he said.
After the meeting, the youth gathered in the cultural hall of the Stake Center for a dance.
