15 July - 6 August 2024
This past weekend, I attended the Utah YSA Conference in Salt Lake City. I flew up on Thursday evening, stayed at Lucy's apartment in Provo, then traveled up with her for the conference over the weekend. It was absolutely exhausting, but also so worth it! We made incredible memories together, heard and saw incredible things, and received lots of inspiration. It was also the most exhausted I've felt in a while, which is to be expected. The first night, arrived at the airport around midnight, then when I got to Lucy's apartment in Heritage Halls, I had to sleep on the couch in the living room, which was not very comfortable. By the time I fell asleep, it was after 2am. We had to wake up at 6am to get ready and go to the front runner. Fortunately, God placed people in our path to help us out. There was a guy on the train who was also attending the conference and was very familiar with public transportation, so he was very helpful. The Salt Palace is HUGE and there were around 10 thousand YSA in attendance. It was so easy to feel overwhelmed and experience instant FOMO, because there was no way you'd be able to do everything that was available over the course of the two days. Lucy and I got to be part of breaking two world records, the biggest speed dating event and the most contributions to a birthday card. They had a HUGE card for President Nelson's 100th birthday next month, and people could submit something online, then when we went to sign it, we would add 5 other people's messages as well. What was difficult about the conference was that I wasn't at my best physically because of lack of sleep, not having food for breakfast or lunch the second day, etc, so it started to wear down on me, but God would place miracles or people in our path. Even when things didn't turn out the way I wanted, like I missed a class I wanted to go to or we missed the front runner on the way home (more about that later), something good or cool always came from it. We were able to help someone that needed it or have an inspired conversation or meet a cool person. After the first day, we got to attend the concert that night. Rachel Platten (most known for "Fight Song") did a fabulous job performing. She talked about her own mental health journey, and I could really tell that she put her heart and soul into singing and that her songs were very meaningful to her. They were very touching and I may have cried at least 3 times. They also had these LED wristbands that were programmed to light up (we couldn't control them) and it was so cool because they would light up in synchrony to different rhythms and in that moment I definitely felt connected to everyone, part of something bigger. It was SO INCREDIBLE to experience. I also got to meet up with Whitney and see her for a bit, which always feels incredible. I love her! So grateful for eternal friendships. Well, after Rachel performed, we heard from Emma Nissan and then Ben Rector, but we didn't really know any of Ben Rector's songs, and we realized if we left about 20 min early from the concert, then we'd be able to catch the front runner and make it home an hour earlier than getting out of the concert a bit after 10pm and having to wait an hour for the front runner and getting back around midnight. Well, the trax that took us to the front runner was running late and was cutting it too close. We had a minute to get from the trax to the front runner, according to the app. But the trax got stuck at the LONGEST RED LIGHT OF MY LIFE and we missed the front runner by 30 seconds!! We were running down the stairs right to it as it started pulling away. So we had to sit there for an hour anyway to wait for the next one, and so we missed the end of the concert for nothing! I was SO mad, and SO TIRED. But Lucy got to see some old work friends and talk with them, and then a girl Lucy knew was worried about how to get home because the bus wasn't running that late in the evening, so we were able to give her a ride back to campus. So it worked out, but again, I was soooo tired and didn't get much sleep before we had to do it all over again. I was grateful I got to spend more time with Whitney on Saturday. Though I didn't really meet any new friends or guys, I took home some messages that uplifted and inspired me. From listening to Emily Belle Freeman, I wrote down that when life presents you with two good choices, choose the harder right. Life will take you to extraordinary places if you do that. She also pointed out how the restoration was brought about by YSA aged people! Even though we are young, we can make an impactful difference. Sharon Eubank spoke about not needing to wait to be generous, that the efforts we put in now are enough. And how the smiles we exchange through service is so much more meaningful than the money we make through work. People filled out an anonymous survey about what they were most concerned about, and the mental health of the youth of the church was the #1 thing, and what struck me was that out of the thousands of people there, I'm one of the few who can actually do something about that, so I really want to find a way to serve in the community or in schools and help kids improve their mental and emotional health. Acts of service are acts of faith, because you don't always know why you are doing them or the impact they will have, but you proceed anyway. I also attended a break out class and learned all about paradox, how everything is a paradox. We love our family AND they drive us crazy. We have hard things happen to us that we don't like AND we love how we become better from them. Etc. I was also reminded that in all of my work, I need to remember to give the credit back to God. That is how I will stay humble and fly even higher. I also had an insight about how Satan does not and never will have a body, so he literally cannot understand bodily pains and sufferings. He cannot validate or empathize or have compassion, but just tempts and laughs when we fall, never really understanding why it's so easy to fall at times in these mortal bodies. And I think too that it is because he does not have a body and cannot feel what we feel that his biggest tactic is for us to not feel or experience our emotions or physical sensations, to numb out and disassociate.
So those are the highlights from the conference, and now I will go back earlier in time and share some other highlights from July along with the photos below:
Much love,
Emily Burnham
