Young Adult Conference, Russian Style

This year our area Young Adult Conference was held in St. Petersburg. There were kids here from the Baltic states, Ukraine, Bella Russia, Moscow, St. Persburg, and a few from scattered places all over the country. We had 250 kids (I say 'kids' but they were ages 18 to 30) at this resort about thirty miles to the northwest of St. Petersburg on the Gulf of Finland. This was an Island Park area but had these resorts all along the coast. Ours was probably a hundred acres or so and had a six story hotel, that was actually ok for us, the mission president, and the other dignitaries who came. But for the kids, well, they had a shower in the basement for them.

We got there Thursday at around noon, after having gotten ourselves lost in St. Petersburg for a bit in trying to find our bus at 7:30 in the morning. We went the wrong way on the metro so when we figured that out we took our first taxi ride to get where we were supposed to be. One comment about the food at the resort. It was interesting. I managed to eat most of it, me the non-adventurous one. Diane got about two spoonfuls of cooked cereal for the three breakfast meals. No milk. Let's just leave it at, the meals were not looked forward to except from the point of view of wondering what would be presented.

Diane says it was just like a glorified girls' camp. There was a full adgenda for the kids to do during the conference. They had speakers at various times such as our mission president, the Finish temple president, our S & I (CES) area supervisor, and a member of the area presidency, Elder Pierson. They had sports, play time, swimming in the ocean, and seminars to attend.

We presented six seminars on two different subjects. We had one entitled, "Courtship LDS Style", and the other was, "Gaining and Keeping a Testimony." Our seminars were well attended and it was fun to interact with the kids. Ours was held in a nice tent-type 'room,' with a wooden floor, in the woods. No one thought to assign us an interpreter, but each time there was someone in the seminar who was able and willing to translate. The youth of the church out here are so spiritual, spirtited, and excited to be members of the church.

Each night they had a dance with a different theme and the kids stayed up all hours. The 2nd night they had a talent show and all the areas got to present some kind of a talent. The last night, our group, put on a musical spectacular for a hour. It was really well done and we had observed them at our institute practicing this for a month or so. I'm sure it would have been much better if we knew what the story line was. No one translated for us. We missed having the elders and sisters always making sure we had translators.

On Sunday we had a two hour testimony meeting and they had to stop the kids who wanted to line up and bear their testimonies. They also limited them to one minute each and had a timer who raised his hand to let them know when their time was up. It was a wonderful experience to be among this large group of LDS youth. We came home with the feeling that we know the future of the church is in good hands.

Oh, is that a little mermaid on those glacial rocks?

Kite flying on the beach.