Youth Conference

We had a great time at Youth Conference and are glad we ended up helping with it. Originally we said "No" because it was a 3 day time commitment and we didn't know what we'd do with Benjamin during it, but they had asked 33 couples, and before us only 4 had agreed to do it. They were hoping to have 8-10 couples. Ryan ended up working three 11 hour days and 7 hours on Friday morning while the kids were at Habitat for Humanity and Ryan's mom also took off from work. We couldn't have done it without her. I was definitely having Benjamin withdrawal after being away from him for 28 hours straight (Friday afternoon to Saturday evening... not to mention all day/evening Thursday). It was his first sleepover and he had a great time. He is definitely one well adjusted kid because I seemed to miss him a lot more than he did me!

We were the "Mission President and Wife" for the Kyiv, Ukraine mission. We had a great group of kids. Their spirituality and strength was inspiring to me. All of our kids seemed to have a great time and we were the only mission where everyone (including me) bore their testimonies. I can't tell if it's just because I'm pregnant or I was really touched by the spirit because I got choked up a lot. The Stake Young Women's Presidency gave us a great surprise at the end of the conference by framing the above 8x10 photo in a mat with all the kids' signatures.
This was Monday evening at the Kanesville Tabernacle. Our group was passing out lemonade before the "Come Home to Kanesville" Performance.

This was our skit. We taught the kids the song "Called to Serve" in Russian. Two of the kids acted like missionaries "contacting" Ukrainians.
Ryan was dressed up like the Ukrainian Neo. It would have been cool to have coordinated the kids in the audience throwing globe beach balls at him (they were the center pieces) like bullets in "The Matrix" (We own the edited version).

This is Friday evening. Ryan is playing "Stick Pull" with the Dominican Republic "Mission President".

As you can see, Ryan is flying through the air.

The kids were getting restless! Ryan filmed them and an unnamed adult taking a handcart through the drive-thru at Taco Bell. Ryan would have been the one in the handcart except I'm much more reserved than I used to be and way more reserved than he is. I.e. I convinced him it would be a bad idea. The manager at Taco Bell wasn't amused and said that because the handcart didn't have a motor they were considered pedestrians... No motor, no drive-thru service. The video is posted on Youtube.com and has been viewed 225+ times in the last 5 days.