Youth Conference- Day 2

If you haven't read the post about our first day at Youth Conference, we recommend you scroll down and read that one first :)

Sister Davis thought you might like a tour of Kraukli before we get started with Day 2 so you can visualize better what we were doing....

Kraukli has two huge guest houses (and two smaller cabins), both in beautiful shape (thanks to Edmunds handiwork), surrounded by beautiful lawns, gardens full of blooming flowers and close to a tranquil little river.  Edmunds is the Latvian equivalent to Sister Davis's dad, they both take great pride in their land.

The renovated old barn (above) is three stories high.  On the first floor you will find a sauna, two showers, a dining alcove, WC and staff room. The staff room (below) became"Youth Conference Central", where ALL important paperwork, props, crafts and candy was kept. It was immensely helpful to have everything in one place. It was usually a mess of bags and stuff but it gave all the leaders a place to regroup and unwind.

On the second floor, there was a huge dining room, and a WC.

 This guest house sleeps about 21 people because the top floor has four bedrooms, a shower and another WC. This became the boys facility because we had twice as many girls as boys.

The second guest house is two stories with a loft above. It sleeps 37 and thus became the girls facility. No boys allowed...except for Elder Davis who happened to be sharing a room with Sister Davis.

The bedrooms were very clean and each bed had clean sheets, blankets, and pillows. Sister Davis was thrilled with the place and was determined to make sure these rooms would be as clean when we left as they were when we arrived. And thus the "Clean Room Award" was instituted at Campfire.

Our guest house only had two WC's and one shower for 27 girls....but we managed just fine.

So on Day 2 of  youth conference, Elder & Sister Davis rolled out of our bunk beds about 7:30 hoping to get a bathroom free before we left the guest house.   Seminary started at 8:00 so we had to hustle...usually Sister Davis went down the hallway singing some funny song to get the girls moving each  morning.  She was surprised how quickly this got them up and out of bed... her singing must be worse than she thinks.

Anna, a Latvian youth, made this sign....

Antti taught an Old Testament class to half the youth in the dining room....
               Estonian youth with Maris                                                                Julia & Sintija

For our class,  Sister Davis took  half of the youth and their leaders into the woods.  She knows what you  must be thinking....."What class needs to be taught in the woods at 8:00AM!?"
You will see that there is a method to our madness.  You see, at girls camp Sister Davis remembered how inspiring and faith promoting it was to have the youth read their scriptures out in nature all by themselves.  She wanted that same experience for the Baltic youth. And though it was early in the morning at Kraukli,  the birds were singing, the dew was drying on the grass, and it wasn't raining.

We started off talking about how Joseph Smith was confused about what church to join, when there were so many to choose from and each had different doctrines. He was reading his Bible one day and James 1:5 told him to "ask of God". He pondered this scripture and decided he would ask of God and the rest is the history of our church.  Well, we wanted the youth to have time to ponder and read their scriptures with no distractions.  So, into the woods we went....to ponder and meditate.

As we headed into the woods, Elder & Sister Davis got the same feeling we did when we visited the sacred grove in Palmyra, New York.  It was quiet and peaceful...the perfect place for pondering.

All the youth were silent as we walked and Sister Davis would tap one person on the shoulder and point to a log or stump for them to go sit on ...and the group kept walking until she found another good pondering spot for the next person until all the youth were scattered around these woods.
For 30 minutes they sat;  some wrote in their spiritual journals, some read scriptures and all got to have peace and quiet with their own thoughts....

The only problem was the mosquitoes.

Those nasty, little blood suckers....that should never have been created.  We hadn't noticed mosquitoes the first day, probably because there was a breeze...but this morning the little devils were out in force.  The youth who wore jeans and long sleeved shirts were fine...it was those who chose to wear shorts that had the problem. We had one can of repellent for about 20 people and it wasn't enough.

The mosquitoes were the only problem we had the whole time at Kraukli. We went through 3 cans of repellent in two days and had to go buy four more cans...none of the youth brought their own. We started joking that  "the mosquito"  should be made the new Latvian national bird.

But despite the mosquito problem, the pondering activity was a success with most of the youth. Many of them shared faith promoting things that happened to them as they pondered and read scriptures. One leader told us, she read a passage of scripture that she had read before.... only this time, "it was as if everything made sense to her."

One of the youth noticed a row of ants, busy with work...and she saw in them the analogy of our lives. The ants were in a straight and narrow line....headed back to their home (Heaven) and were busy carrying things and working to help each other. She noticed that the ants touched each other as they passed by...all were busy but all had one goal.  She even drew an ant in her spiritual journal to remind her of this experience.

What a thrill for us to see a young person who can find gospel principles in nature!

Time for breakfast...         
 

 Breakfast was cheese and ham croissants with hot cocoa and Rosol salad. Sister Davis had the cocoa and croissants...she just couldn't stomach eating cold salad for breakfast. Elder Davis, of course, tried
everything, at every meal. He is a good man!


Antti's next class was a team building exercise. The youth had to build a Lego house by designating someone as the architect, construction manager, and carpenters. It had to follow a specific plan and be done under the time limit.  The youth loved it!

At the same time, Elder & Sister Davis taught the scripture marking class that was such a hit at Latvia's Super Saturday.  Again, the kids participated and were eager to try out a new way to find scriptures by topics.

The two boys on the right are brothers;  Ingus and Elves...

Luiza, Anna, Alars & Joosep....

 

This is Sasha's little sister....Jelizabeta; Julia  is next to her, working hard.

The next workshop, Elders Flake & Davis were giving to the boys...."A Chosen Vessel" was the title but it was mostly on hygiene. They actually talked about sweat glands....the ones that leave the yellow stain on shirts.  Here they are preparing in the Staff Room.....

The boys were taught about cleanliness and how girls don't really like stinky boys. They were all given a bar of soap and told to use it that night before the dance.  The boys seemed to be enjoying the class because it was based on "how to attract girls".

Meanwhile, the girls were having a modesty, cleanliness class in the dining hall and one girl was chosen to get a free haircut. 

This worried Sister Davis a little...."Skaiste, you're giving a haircut to a girl without her mother's permission?!"

Skaiste (a trained stylist),  "Don't worry Sister, this isn't the United States!"

And sweet Gintare (below) won the haircut... and guess what? She was the only youth whose mother happened to be chaperoning at youth conference. This made Sister Davis give a sigh of relief!  Her mother was thrilled Gintare was getting a free haircut...which is what Skaiste had told Sister Davis all along....every mother would be thrilled to have their daughter get a free haircut.

And now a word or two about Galina...the mother who was chaperoning.  She was the only local leader who had children over 4 years of age.  Not only is she the mother of a teenager, she has been a member of the church in Lithuania for 17 years...just after the Soviet occupation ended. She has experience as a mother and as a church member. We loved having her at camp...unfortunately, Galina only speaks Russian.  It didn't really matter, we managed to communicate just fine. Galina understood more English than she could speak.  She could easily be next years conference chairperson with a translator by her side.  This is what the church really needs in the Baltic countries....experience in it's members, and that is just a matter of time.

The kids had a little free time before lunch....

Lunch was substantial. In Latvia, the big meal is in the middle of the day, with a smaller dinner in the evening.  So, lunch was a chicken fillet, mashed potatoes, beet salad, bread, orange cream dessert and punch.  And it was good!

Now that tummies were full, we had a dance workshop!  The boys met separately from the girls and Donatas and Lasma taught these classes...dance etiquette,  simple dance moves, etc.  Donatas is a young at heart, branch president in Klaipeda, Lithuania.  He has some crazy dance moves and he was loved by the boys at youth conference.

And then the youth had free time for two hours....Riina on the zip line.

Adomas, Alars and Ingus, swimming in the pond...

 

European football.... and volleyball in the background.

The crafts class was t-shirt painting:

Snack time!....

Pastries and meat rolls, but who's hungry?

And then time for the Service Project.  The younger girls were given the task of raking the lawn for Edmunds. The older youth went into the mosquito invested forest and cleaned up the many trails that Edmunds makes through his property.

The evenings were always so nice...we never had to wear a jacket except to keep the mosquitoes from biting us and it stayed light until 11:00.  We will finish this post with a few random pictures from Kraukli....

 

 This picture was actually taken at 11:00 at night....it was fog forming off the river and settling in the meadow beyond.

Edmunds even has an outhouse on his property....just like Sister Davis's dad!

The guest house cat was covered with ticks...obviously, his main job is to catch mice.

Notice the flash card he is staring at.....

And we have no idea why someones tennis shoes are hanging from the skylight....

Day two is not quite over...the campfire, district activity and dance are still ahead but will have to be published in another post.  Stay tuned!

Arise & Shine Forth...Baltic Youth Conference 2012

Have you every wondered if everything you do in life has a purpose? Why are you here on earth? And does what you do every day, really matter? Well,  Sister Davis knows she has a purpose on earth.  She is helping to strengthen peoples testimony of the Savior. But she has often wondered why she spent 10 years of her life attending Girls Camp (for LDS young women 14-18 yrs of age) and now she understands a little better the purpose of that.

When President  Boswell managed to secure funds for a Baltic Youth Conference, Elder & Sister Davis were asked to "take the lead".  Elder Davis deferred to Sister Davis to lead the way and she became the "de facto" chairperson, since he had never organized ANY camp.  And those 10 years of  training acquired at Girls Camp, made Sister Davis's job so much easier. It was as if every successful thing she learned while helping at girls camp was meant to be taught in the Baltic.

So this post will be about how she managed to put together a youth conference for 30 youth & 21 adults.... from three different countries, speaking 5 different languages, using 3 different currencies. Sounds difficult, right? Sometimes it was frustrating but we had so many tender mercies, the Lord made this much easier than we thought it would be.  And we had.... OH, SO MUCH FUN!

First, we needed help. And we knew we could count on 4 women that spoke good English and who were involved in the young women's program of the church. We had a three-way Skype session with all three countries and got organized.  We used the youth theme for the year, "Arise and Shine Forth..." and we made a schedule for  Monday, July 2nd - Thursday, July 5th.

While the majority of the work fell on Elder & Sister Davis, we managed to give assignments to all three countries.  We made a "To-Do List"... and started working...and working....and working on it.

The Latvian District YW's President Linda.....was a blessing to us.
She found us the place--Kraukli Guest House,  agreed to plan a nature activity for youth conference and  give a presentation before testimony meeting on Wed. evening.  She also managed to get the food catered so we didn't have to worry about cooking. Linda  also chartered a bus (two days before conference was supposed to start) for the 29 Latvians & Lithuanians that needed a ride to conference.

She organized the youth as they arrived at the church in Riga and got them on the bus at the right time.  And she decorated some jars for candles to shine through, for our stage area. All easier said, than done!

Bus tickets from 7 cities had to be purchased...Sister Davis wisely left that up to each district to do. The Estonian youth managed to get a bus directly to Salacgrivas and just needed a ride to the camp . The Lithuanians & Latvians arrived on the chartered bus which was cheaper than individual tickets but had  to get to Riga by 1:30 to get on the chartered bus before it left. Bus schedules can be tricky things sometimes but everyone managed to get to the right place at the right time.



Left: Maris from Estonia managed to get her 9 youth/YSA's on a bus and to Salacgrivas by 4:30 and was prepared to do a craft activity and had her YSA's plan the 1920's dance for Tuesday night. 




Natalie (below)  from the Latvian Russian Branch agreed to teach the girls a hygiene  workshop along with Skaiste and was a great help getting the youth enthused about attending.
















Lasma & Donatas Blindarukas from Lithuania planned a dance workshop and Donatas was assigned to speak before testimony meeting on the theme.

 We couldn't have done this without the help of all these local leaders. They could have done this themselves...they just haven't realized it yet.







The roster of attendees had to be reprinted right up until 9:00 the night before we left, because of last minute changes.  That was the most frustrating part...Sister Davis had all the youth divided into four colored groups and every time her phone rang the list would change because either someone dropped out or a new person wanted to be added. Every change meant a new list had to be reprinted for the counselors. Oh well, one ream of paper later, we were set.

Elder & Sister Davis took E/S Flake with us in our car.  Elder Flake was a podiatrist in his former life and he was going as our medical advisor.  Lasma, Donatas and baby Lukas wanted to arrive early and they followed us to Kraukli....

 We arrived on a cloudy-with-sprinkles day. We had grabbed some games as we left the apartment in case it rained for four days and we had nothing to do for activity time. We were blessed to have no major rain while we were there though we did get a few sprinkles.

We met Edmunds (the owner) and Lasma translated for us. He was excited we were there and wrote down our schedule of activities so he would know what was going on each day. He promised to come to some of our campfires and we can't say enough good things about this man. He loves sharing his place with others and was so excited we had offered to do a service project to help him fix it up.

Sister Davis made a schedule similar to what she followed at girls camp. Workshops until 2:00, two hours of free time, a group project ...free time until dinner, campfire, dance one night, testimony meeting the next and lights out at 10:30. The lights out part is just a joke...it doesn't get dark enough to really turn on the lights until 11:00 and no one really managed to get to bed that early anyway. But it did look good on paper!

At the last minute Elder & Sister Millet decided to attend, and while we didn't know if we would have space, Edmunds found them a place to stay and we couldn't have managed without their help! Senior Couples are worth their weight in gold when it comes to putting on an event this size. So many little things come up unexpectedly, that having a few extra people (who really understand what you need)  were a blessing.

We found out the chartered bus in Riga, got a flat tire and was a half hour late to the church, so the youth would be late arriving. And when they did started arriving, they did so on foot.  The bridge into Kraukli isn't strong enough for buses so the youth unloaded their gear and walked up the dirt drive into camp...with Elder Davis there to record it.

The trek....

Julia and Ingus (with rakes for service project)....followed by people struggling with their bags.

Elder Flake welcoming Sondra and Luiza...

Galina (far back), Tomas (YSA),  Austeja,  Gintare and Laima on the last leg of their journey into conference.

Rihard showing how ready he is to have some fun!

The youth had to register with E/S Flake where they each received an "Arise and Shine Forth" wrist band that divided them into four groups by color. They also got a packet with spiritual journal, a pen, daily schedule and name tag. They  printed their name on an envelope that would become their conference "mail box" so the youth could "send" notes to each other, which became quite a hit. And then they had free time until the Estonians arrived.

This camp had so many things to do, we never worried about the youth being bored... they played Frisbee, soccer, volleyball, basketball, hula-hoops, walked by the river and played on the climbing equipment....so much to do and only three days to do it in.

Edmunds was busy mowing the lawn and allowed Elder Flake a go-around on his riding mower, though they couldn't understand each other's language, they managed to communicate.

Soon after the youth arrived, the first snack arrived from Salacgrivas.  The company that provided the food, fed us three meals a day and a substantial snack for 5 Lat a person. Now, feeding someone four times a day for $10 is pretty reasonable...and we got so much food we had to store some in the camp kitchen. The snack was Spanish rice with big chunks of pork in it.  Dinner was a ham porridge and they were only an hour and a half apart! No one ever went hungry at this youth conference.

Karolina, who is not a member of the church but was invited by her friend, seemed to be have a good time.  "Here Elder Davis, CATCH!"

The swing was a big hit!

While the youth were playing and having a good time, Elder & Sister Davis snuck in a staff meeting with all the camp leaders.  We hadn't even met all the chaperone's yet and we needed to make sure everyone knew the rules of youth conference.

After dinner, it was time for "campfire" which Edmunds lit every night, even though it wasn't dark enough to appreciate the ambiance of the fire. The youth  sat quietly waiting to see what would happen next.

You might be wondering what language was used at  youth conference. For the most part English, though they used their native tongue to talk with friends, and, if they didn't understand English during classes,  someone would translate for them. It was interesting to us that we never had to ask someone to translate for anyone else. The youth knew who needed help and just sat by them and translated whenever it was needed.

We had FHE first, given by Brigita, a YSA from Lithuania. She gave a great lesson on perspective and had a relay race that required partners working together to win.



Then Sister Davis did her "campfire leader" routine like she used to do at girls camp.
The first song she taught these youth was one they had never heard before.....
Black Socks!

Okay, all those campers who already know this song are probably asking,  "Why on earth would Sister Davis want to curse the Baltic with a song that you can't ever seem to get out of your head?"                                                                                                                        And that is a valid question...it's because black socks translates into any language. Every country has black socks...and they get dirty...and they have to be washed. For those who have no idea what Sister Davis is talking about, the words of the song go like this:

"Black socks, they never get dirty

The longer you wear them the blacker they get.

Some day, I think I might wash  them,

But something inside me says, "Don't do it yet...not yet...not yet!"

And this was the perfect song to warm up the crowd with...and NOT ONE of them had ever heard it before! Whoa, there was going to be some serious culture shock with Sister Davis introducing foreign songs to nations that pride themselves on their folk music.  Will this rather irritating invasion of sound ruin their culture?  Sister Davis was willing to take that risk, though if it ever got back to their Minister of Culture, she could well be deported from the country.

FYI: "Black Socks" was heard being sung all over camp for the next three days...mostly by girls. The boys made up their own lyrics that Elder Davis heard, but we won't repeat those lyrics on a nice blog like this....

After the first song, it was time for "rat races".....

The three brave volunteers, Viktoria, Jeva and Karolina had to wind up a toy rat and get it to the end of the table first to get a candy bar.  The rats don't always cooperate and go in all directions.

Next song?

A -tee-ta- tah!

 Thumbs up! Elbows out...knees together...bum out...tongue out...turn around!....

"Yep, there is no doubt about it, the Minister of Culture is not going to like this!"

The youth were super, even the older boys participated

And then time for another Rat Race...

.

 Adomas, Sintija & Ingus racing their rodents down the table with Ingus's rat winning handily.

The Young Single Adult camp leaders were introduced...Oliver, Triinu, Marta, Sanita, Tomas and Viktoria.

Does Sister Davis dare to teach Bungalow?

"Oh, yes she does!"

And it is another hit...with kids dancing in the strangest fashions while singing, Bung-a-low, bung, bung-a-low.

And now its time for group skits...the youth had been given 45 minutes before dinner  to come up with a skit and practice it ...except for the Latvian Russian Branch young women who did the dance they performed for the 20th Anniversary of the church in Latvia.  The campfire smoke kept drifting their way, making the skit even more mystical.

L-R:  Jeva, Anna, Julia, Marija, Karolina,  & Natalie (their leader).  Each girl is holding a light in their hands (symbolic of the light of Christ) and they dance slowly around sharing with each other.

And then the devil comes and slowly makes each girl lose their testimony of Christ and their lights go out.....

Until one new girl enters the dance with a strong light and helps each girl get their light back...together they force the devil away with their lights.

Each group had to use the props given to them in a bag. The birthday hat became the nose of a bee...that flitted from flower to flower, while someone narrated the story.

The next skit was a story of little red riding hood (in red & white cap) who was going to her grandmothers house  because she thought she would be lonely. But grandma had so many friends, there was a party going on when Red Riding Hood showed up...there was a lot of  singing in this skit....

The next skit was really a song made up by Karl, Oliver, Kirk, Rihard and Austeja...about a cowboy and a cowgirl.

After campfire was over, brownies made by the missionary couples were handed out and everyone had some free time to play and talk. 

Luiza (who is a Costa Rican-Lithuanian) and Sondra enjoying the campfire.

The youth were supposed to be in bed by 10:30, which was a good goal but an unattainable one.  Most of the youth were in bed by 11:00 but a few night-owls stayed up talking. Elder & Sister Davis didn't get to bed until 1:00PM but we were pleased that the opening day had gone as smoothly as it had and were looking forward to DAY 2....which will be in another post. 

DAY 1 wore us out!