The Broken Butterfly

This is not the famous broken butterfly, but still, I marvel at the beauty of this tiny creation.  Taken by Hannah Jacobs.

        Youth Conference of the year 2014 was a great one.  For those of you who don't know, I am a Latter-Day Saint in the Church of Jesus Christ.  Or as many people know us by; Mormons.

        

        In our church, once a year, the youth fourteen years of age and up go on a short trip for a few days.  We do service, go on hikes, and just enjoy the time we have as youth.  

Our youth.  Yeah we're pretty good lookin'.  Taken by Holly Hall.

        Let me tell you a little bit about us...we are insane.  But in the best way possible, of course!  We all get along (at least 85% of the time).  And there is no boy/girl segregation.  We're all just buddies!

       For this youth conference, we went to the beautiful little town of Manti, Utah.  We all met at our church building, packed our things into a trailer, had a quick, yet spiritual, devotional, than we headed on our way.  It was quite a hectic ride!  With four teenage boys, three teenage girls, and one chauffeur (my dad, who by the way, is the best dad ever), you can kind of imagine what it was like.

(From left to right.)  In the first photo, I was attempting to get one of the boys in a picture, but he kept hiding every time I tried.  In the second photo, we had just stopped at a gas station to take a rest from sitting on our behinds.  In the last photo, well, let's just say it was a picturesque moment.

        Oh, and just a warning, I was anointed "official youth conference photographer."  That means that this post will involve many photographs of ridiculous teenagers who for some reason find it their duty to be as daringly dumb and strange as the leaders will allow.  

        We finally reached Manti, which is one of my favorite places on the whole planet.  My two best friends, Ryan and David, live down there.  I have known them for as long as I can remember, and with Manti being so far away, seeing them is a rare and wonderful occasion.

       My daddy stopped the van, and told us children to go save seats for the Manti Pageant (aka Mormon Miracle Pageant.)  I'll explain more on that later on.  

       My friends and I unpacked blankets, pillows, jacket, and more blankets.  We quickly walked to the gate.  That's when we saw the sign.  "No entrance until 6 PM."

       Oh crap.

       It was around 5:35 at the time, so we had a 25 minute wait ahead of us.  We were all hungry, tired, and bored from sitting for the past three hours, so while that may not seem bad, it seemed to be a very dire moment for the rest of us.

       The 25 minutes passed; we ran and layed the blankets over the seats we wanted, and ran back to the van.

      Two minutes later, we were at our campsite, which was actually a backyard.  It was my best friend's parent's backyard.

       The rest of the youth and leaders were already there, setting up tents and beds.  It was hilarious, seeing how the young women leaders had brought air mattresses and other comfier bedding.  One of my leaders even brought a pool flotation chair thingy.  (What are those even called?)  The men on the other hand, they were roughin' it up with simple sleeping bags.  One leader...he didn't even sleep in a tent!

      After everything was set up, my father gathered everyone together to explain the plan for the evening.  It was simple.  

1.  Go to Pageant Dinner.

2.  Let the teenagers loose on the unexpecting town of Manti

3.  Meet at the Pageant by dark

4.  Go back to camp/backyard

       So that's what we did!  Pageant dinners are a delicious concoction of ice cold water. fluffy rolls, green beans, mashed potatoes swimming in gravy, a juicy piece of the most delicious turkey, and a choice between carrot cake or a chocolate brownie with the perfect amount of chocolate frosting.  Mmmmmmmmm.

At the dinners.  Aren't they all absolutely adorable?

       During the dinner is when I first saw David.  I had seen Ryan earlier, in the backyard, but had only spoken to him for a minute.  So I saw David and Ryan at the dinner, and being me, I harassed them the whole time, as they were there to serve the people eating.  David was refilling water pitchers, and Ryan was handing out cups.   As annoying as I acted, I sure was glad to see the two of them, and honestly, I just about screamed with joy.

        We finished eating, and slowly separated into groups.  We were released to go explore and enjoy Manti.  

In the first of these photographs, we are all chillin' at a local playground.  Coolest.  Playground.  Ever.  In the middle one, are some of my wonderful friends.  They are as beautiful as can be!  The last photo is another playground photograph.  It's quite funny actually, how all of us stopped to play at the exact same playground, although we had come in groups.  As one boy in my ward put it, "teenagers must have a sixth sense, one that tells us where the nearest playground is, because every single one of the youth converged onto the exact same playground."

        My small group left the playground and headed for the pageant.  Now let me explain.  The Mormon Miracle Pageant is not a show where girls dress up in fancy dresses and swimwear and model for everyone.  It is quite different.  The Mormon Miracle Pageant is when all the inhabitants of Manti (or at least everyone that wants to,) puts on a giant show about Joseph Smith, the stories within the Book of Mormon, and Latter-Day Saint pioneers as they went from place to place, in search of Zion.

       I have been in the pageant two times, and it is wonderful!  To watch it was a different experience.  Anyway, before it starts, people from the cast come down amongst the audience and interact with them.  Some of my girl friends were in it, and they came down to find me.  Oh, how I loved seeing them again!

        The pageant is held on a steep hill in front of the Manti temple.  Hundreds of chairs are set up at the bottom of the hill.  It works well, because the cast preforms on the hill, making it easy for everyone to see what is going on.  So as the sun started to set, it was a beautiful view of my all-time favorite temple.  

My favorite temple ever-the Manti, Utah temple.  Taken by Hannah Jacobs.

      Just as the pageant was about to begin, Ryan and David came to watch with me.  We chatted until the pageant started.  Well...okay, maybe we chatted a bit during the pageant, too.

       The pageant ended around 11 o'clock, leaving me with a deep sense of gratitude and love for Christ and our Father and all they have done for me.  My friend Heather and I went to the front to talk to the cast a little bit.  We even took a picture!

From left to right:  me, some really cool dude (I think he was a Nephite?), and Heather.  Taken by Ryan Christensen.  In case you can't tell by my rigid body, and clenched fist, it was freezing cold.  That's what I get for wearing shorts!

        Ryan and David gave Heather and me a ride home.  We raced with Ryan's good friend, Jack.  We lost, but only because we weren't ready!  It was a scary race, and I think I almost peed my pants.

        We got back to camp-yard.  We were all in high spirits, and none of us wanted to go to bed.  Alas, we did, after a prayer.  All the girls crammed into one large tent.  I was getting a headache, and wanted to sleep, but that didn't happen for at least an hour.  Too many girls with too much energy+sugar smuggled into suitcases=no sleep for anyone.  

        Eventually, the leaders in the next tent over called to us, telling us that we had to go to bed.  So we did!...after they asked a few times.

        Next morning, eight groggy girls sat up as Holly called for us to "wake up and get at 'em!"  We found out the boys had already woken up, packed their things, and were in the process of putting tents away.  Which meant that we had to hurry or we were gonna miss breakfast.  So as fast as we could, we packed up.  We had a nice breakfast of sugary cereals, sugary muffins, and milk.  I had Cocoa Puffs and a chocolate muffin with chocolate chips.  Lotsa chocolate for me!

        I bid a sad farewell to Ryan, David, their siblings (all boys), and their parents, who I call my adoptive mom and dad.  I really do love that family!

        We got in vans and headed out.  We were goin' on a hike!  Being a photographer, my camera was on and at the ready about 99.9% of the time during the hike.  It was a stunning view, all the way from the bottom to the very top!  I wish I could show you the millions of photographs I took, but this post is already too long.  I'll show you a few! 

Towering trees, blue skies, and tall mountains.  I wish I could have a picture of every single thing I saw on the hike.

        Before we started the hike, we separated into two groups.  One hiked this trail, the other hiked that trail, and then we all met at the top to eat lunch.  It was awesome.

Livin' on the edge!

        The hike down is where the title "The Broken Butterfly" comes in.  As we were walking down the trail, I noticed this tiny butterfly.  At closer inspection, I saw that the bottom half of this butterfly's wing was gone.  As I watched, it fluttered away with difficulty.  Yet, it did not stop.  It fluttered onward, determined not to give up.  That tiny creation inspired me.  As we go through this life, we will often feel like giving up is the best option.  But we often find that through the Lord, we can get up and continue.  Life is not over because of one thing.  You made a mistake?  Repent and keep going.  You're in a fight with a friend?  Go to the Lord.  He will help you.  We need to be like the broken butterfly.  We need to keep moving forward, no matter how difficult.  And even when we have a good reason to just give up the fight, we shouldn't.  Because Christ is cheering us on.  He's watching us and thinking "Come on, you guys!  You can do this!  I believe in you!"  And I think that as long as Christ believes in us, we should believe in ourselves, too.  Let's be more like a tiny creation of God's; a little broken butterfly, determined although injured.  Keep going on, because in the end, it will be worth it.

        That thought hit me hard and good.

        After the hike, we got a moment to relax as we drove to an old folks' home.  Once there, we immediately began cleaning.  Well...the others immediately started cleaning.  Being assigned as ward photographer, I got to take photos of the others working.  That may seem selfish of me, but it was actually quite nice to see everyone working so hard for these elderly people.  Although it was a fairly hot day, and it was work that they were doing, they smiled and laughed through the whole thing.  What a wonderful group of kids I have the opportunity to spend time with!  I couldn't ask for a better ward!

        We finished cleaning, bid farewell to the sweet old lady sitting in front of the home, and once again piled into the incredibly stinky, loud vehicles.

        By this time, we were all happy and energized by the service.  So it must have been a bit hard for the leaders to calm us all down for testimony meeting.  

        We met in a marvelous tabernacle.  Goodness, there were so many stairs and doors and hallways!  I actually got lost in there!  Of course, I eventually found my way back to the chapel...although I did have some help from friends.

        Right there, in that chapel, we had an opportunity to bear (bare?) our testimonies.  Oh, how my eyes watered!  It was like my eyes were a dam, and there were tons of water trying to burst out!  It eventually did, of course.  I'm a girl.  I can't keep tears in very long.  It just doesn't work!

        After that, we went outside and enjoyed dinner.  It was leftovers, but boy!  Leftovers have never tasted so good!  Probably because we'd been outside all day, and were practically dying of starvation.  I thought my growling stomach might cause an earthquake!

        Dinner was fun and quite relaxing.  Sitting around picnic tables, talking with some of the coolest people in the history of cool people, eating food, life just seemed real good.

       But alas!  Quiet would not prevail for long, because next thing we know, we were again jammed in van and car, heading into the unknown, with loud music blasting our eardrums.  And as us seven teenagers sang along at the top of our lungs, not even attempting to sound good, but rather trying to sound awful, I felt utterly happy.

        For our last stop, we went to Provo and saw a Comedy Sports show.  I suggest that if you have not seen one of those, you hop in your car and go to see one right now!  They are clean, funny, and they include the audience.  We all laughed until our stomachs hurt.  Although, I must warn you, it is boiling hot inside that building.  I suggest (if you go) that you take a mini fan that you can cool yourself off with.

       Next thing we knew, the show was over and we were heading home.  Although I'd had a blast, the idea of home got me excited.  Home is always a good place to be.

  

        We dropped all the kids in the van off, and then daddy and I headed to our own welcoming home.  Although it was around midnight, I took a shower.  No way was I sleeping in my bed, smelling like that!

       I know this post was long, and some parts I got overly excited and probably typed your eyes off, but it was an experience I'll never forget.  

       Remember to be like the broken butterfly, and remember that you can be happy, even when you feel like giving up.

       Keep going, love God, love yourself.  Let's get through this life with flying colors!