Words can't possibly describe how incredible it was to be in a large auditorium to watch over 3,000 amazing teenagers (including my own!) perform for the Prophet. I spent much of the time wiping tears away from my eyes. The Spirit was strong, and I loved witnessing the hard work of all the youth that had come together for this special event. I'm grateful for activities like this one that bring strong youth together so they can form friendships.
Brevan was so sick last week, and stayed home from school on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I was so worried about him being able to actually perform! I made him rest up as much as possible and kept him full of ibuprofen to keep his fever down. I had already planned to pull him out of school on Friday so he could see "The Avengers" at the theater with Ryan on opening day. When the movie ended, they rushed to get Brevan to the Stake Center so he could catch the bus to Kansas City. The youth all met at the Municipal Auditorium on Friday evening for a tour of the facility and a fireside. Brevan didn't get home until about 10:30 and then had to be up at 5:00 am for an all-day practice at the auditorium before the performance at 6:00 pm. He kept in touch with me over texts, and I worried and prayed as he let me know how horrible he felt. He made it through both days with his fever, sore throat, headache and stomach ache, and fell asleep in the car on our way home Saturday night.
I had Ryan drop me off at the auditorium pm Saturday afternoon, so I could get in the line that already wrapped around the entire building. I ended up standing in line with other ward members, and we got this picture of our kids together.
After getting parked, Ryan met me on the street and took the kids on a walk so they didn't have to wait in the line for the next hour.
I love these two girls (Brenda and Christine) so much. I hope they know how much I appreciate their friendship.
I saved seats for our family, and Ryan brought the kids in right before the show began.
The Napier clan, minus Will who was also performing in the show.
When the Prophet walked in the room, everyone stood and began cheering. It's always a great experience to be in the presence of God's mouthpiece. I literally cried through his entire talk. I recorded a few minutes of it, and will try to upload it to my blog later.
This picture shows our proximity to the Prophet. I felt lucky that we'd chosen seats so near where he spoke.
These are some of my favorite pictures from the night. Although I added many pictures to this post, it's only a small amount of the pictures I actually took. I went well over 100 by the end of the night! All the youth that performed this night are in our temple district. There are 13 stakes in our district, and it spans 4 states. The next couple pictures show our Liberty Stake youth doing the "Kansas City Kitty" dance.
This was a Latin dance performed by one of the Spanish-speaking Stakes.
This Polynesian dance was my favorite! It was performed by youth from a Polynesian Stake.
The only way all the youth could fit in the auditorium at one time was to have them line every aisle of the stands. If you look closely, you can see youth in every available area of the auditorium. They are singing "Arise!" in this picture.
This Stake danced to the song, "Heartland," by George Strait.
Kenneth Cope sang a beautiful song titled, "Broken" while the Joplin, Missouri Stake performed.
The Joplin presentation brought the entire audience to tears. They spoke about the devastation of the tornado that destroyed their town last year, and about how they've had to come together to rebuild their town and their lives, since many of them lost loved ones. They brought wooden frames onto the stage, and began to build houses throughout the performance, while they sang about the terror they witnessed. It was so amazing.
The rules said "no flash photography," so I followed that rule except once when my boy happened to be in the aisle right in front of our seats! What a handsome performer!
Three youth from our town are pictured on the jumbo-tron in this picture.
The missionaries from both areas of the temple district attended the performance, and sang "Called to Serve" with the youth.
After exiting the auditorium, we stood outside with the Simmons and Napiers so we could hopefully see our favorite (very tall) missionary, Elder Childs. He served in our ward for 6 months, and is scheduled to return home in just a few weeks. We grew so close to Elder Childs while he was in our area, and can't wait to see what else he does with his life. He is, without a doubt, the best missionary I've ever had the privilege of knowing. Our girls immediately ran up to him and gave him big hugs!
For part of the time while Elder Childs was in our area, his companion was Elder Moore, who is an equally awesome missionary. These twin towers are now companions again in a Kansas area! I believer Elder Childs is 6 feet 10 inches tall, and Elder Moore is 6 feet 6 inches tall. You don't want to mess with these men!
This picture makes Ryan look like a shrimp, even though he's 6 foot 2 inches. Ryan and Elder Childs (soon to be Stuart Childs again . . .we like to call him Stuey!) have a great bond.
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