Scott Frei, Stake YM President
August 4, 2007
The highlight of the conference (in my opinion) was the service project on Saturday. I gave a devotional about how we all have handicaps; only some people hide them on the inside. I closed the devotional with a video clip of Richard and Dick Hoyt (the father/son duo who have participated in multiple triathlons…only the son is in a wheelchair so the father pushes/pulls/carries him) set to the song, “I Can Only Imagine.”
It was an excellent analogy of how the Savior loves us and carries us when we are handicapped. The Spirit was very strong during the devotional and set the perfect stage for the service project that followed. This project consisted of having handicapped individuals from the area come and participate in a carnival we hosted. It was a huge effort and the youth sat ready for the guests to arrive. The rain had come out (for the first time in weeks!) and forced all of the events inside (in retrospect this was actually a blessing). We waited with great anticipation…and nobody arrived. 15 minutes after it was supposed to have started, I worried that maybe nobody was going to show. I started to call to verify that people were coming. We got the answer that, “They’re not feeling well today,” or “They’re being grumpy today, so we decided not to come.” Although I was in a panic at this point, I somehow knew that the Lord would provide. I had put so much effort into coordinating this, and now to have it end with not a single guest showing up! Well the Lord did provide, and after calling around to all of the group homes in the area, we ended up with 17 guests. So although they were about 30 minutes late, they still came. It was awesome! The youth had the opportunity to serve and love in a way they hadn’t before. It was difficult for many people to reach out to these special people, but many did, stretching their comfort zones. I remember one of the ladies, a woman with Down Syndrome, by the name of Angel coming up to me and saying, Scott! And giving me the biggest hug as if she were my best friend in the world. She didn’t even know me, but I could just feel the love she radiated. The carnival lasted for about two hours and proved to be more than I could have ever hoped for. As we were cleaning up, I walked over to Bishop Knapmiller who had been running one of the stations, and asked him how it went. We looked at each other and just started to cry. It was a wonderful spiritual experience as we stood there feeling the Spirit of what had just taken place. After cleanup and lunch, we had a testimony meeting. It was an excellent testimony meeting, and really ran the way a testimony meeting should. Overall, the conference was just excellent, and based on the feedback we received, it sounds like the youth have spoken about it often.