Catching up...

Before we went to the beach, India and I left Kevin at home with the boys and the Swine Flu while we went to Youth Conference in Manti and Ephraim. We did baptisms in the fairytale-like Manti Temple. I had seen photos before, but the beauty of this Temple and its setting are hard to believe, even while standing right in front of it. I kept blinking to be sure.
India and Caitlin at the Manti Temple

The Manti Pageant later that evening was a very interesting cultural event. It was a unique 'take' on the history of the Church. It is billed as the 'Mormon Miracle Pageant', but parts of it seemed to me more like the 'Mormon Folklore Pageant'. It was fascinating to see how the whole community participates in one way or another and how invested they are in making it successful economically for the town to host so many visitors. It would have been worth it to me to go there and sit on the lawn near the Temple and look at the stars- no pageant necessary. So beautiful...

The rest of the conference was at Snow College. The kids played many games on the lawns, ate in the student center and had a fireside with one of the special teams coaches at BYU- a very cool and spiritual guy from Scotland- Robert Grant. We had several youth that turned out to be sick with the Swine Flu, but other than that, it was a great experience.