The youth conference we had was on Friday and Saturday. Our theme was "Mission Possible". We had put together little detective kits as our invitations to the youth and assigned them to be "Secret Service Agents". They were told to be at the church on Friday morning for their Top Secret Assignment. They were also told to wear their grubbies. We wanted to cover the 3-fold mission of the church and serve the members, the community (non- members) and those on the other side of the veil.

Friday morning we had a little meeting with them and the bishop was their superior who talked to them about their assignments. The first day was based on "Perfecting the Saints". We broke into groups (with a yw and ym leader over each group) and gave them their assignments. We had a arranged throughout the ward different service projects for the youth to do for the whole day. We really tried to think of those in our ward who really needed help. Some of the ones we came up with were moving wood for an older lady, cleaning an older sister's house, making a cement walkway for another, moving rocks out of a trench and filling the holes for a less-active family.   We checked with an elementary school and helped sort, organize, stocked shelves and helped a few teachers get their rooms ready.  We did yard work, house work for a mom who had just had a baby, had several cookie making stations (which we delivered the next day in our random acts of kindness), pressure washed tw decks, painted a garage and deck, and help a family move things out of their house since they were moving, etc.

We also helped two Priests with their Eagle Projects. It was unbelievable how much these small groups got done!!! Each service session was 45 minutes long and then they went to their next project. We took a break for lunch and then we had a few more sessions. You've never seen a group of youth who complained more at the beginning, accomplished so much, and then were just glowing at the end of the day.

At around 5 o'clock we met at a members piece of property for a huge barbecue and games.

The next day they were told to be at the church at 9 am for their second "mission" which was "Proclaim the Gospel". We broke them into groups again and had bags of cards in it that had different quotes and trinkets on it saying thank you for your service. They all had a certain number of places they had to go. Like one group went to Subway, the firestation, a nursing home, a library, city hall, etc. Then each group had a pretty big stack of extra ones that they were to get rid of before they came back. Those ones had cute thoughts on being happy, or enjoying life, or telling them to have a beautiful day, etc.

After your group got done with their assigned ones, you just drove around and gave the other ones at random. That was so fun. My group found a parade that was going on and joined the parade and handed out notes, we were stopped at stoplights and handed them to the next car over, we went to the hospital and gave them to patients and nurses, walked through the mall and gave them out, etc. It was the most amazing experience for me and the youth to see the expressions on peoples faces. The looks on some of their faces will always be stuck in my mind.

Then at 11:30 - 1:00 we had a free car wash at the church. We also had asked them all to bring a sack lunch that day. We put posters up every where that said, "We LOVE to serve, free car wash! NO DONATIONS!!!" After we washed their car we gave them a little note and told them thank you. That kept us busy and VERY WET! We had asked everyone to bring their change of clothes with them that morning and at 1:00 we sent everyone off to change and get ready to go to the temple, which was our last mission, "Redeem the Dead".

We had the youth come up with their own names and we went and did baptisms for their families. It was so wonderful. We came back, had a big baked potato bar dinner and went to a members house for the best testimony meeting I've ever been too. The youth were crying, the adults were crying and we really changed some lives. I can't even describe those two days. I feel so grateful to have been a part of such an amazing chain of events. I hope that you'll share with me how it works for you if any one decides to do this. If you need any other info and details, let me know.