Because of the Boise Temple Re dedication our youth were able to participate in a youth cultural celebration to be performed in front of President Monson. As luck would have it the entire young women's presidency were released right before the start of all this greatness. We were really disappointed to not be able to participate. But then I got a call from the new president a couple weeks before asking if I would like to help drive the kids. I would drive them down in the morning and then come back home only to return in the evening to watch the performance live in the Taco Bell Arena and then drive kids home. I was happy to oblige and of course said sure. Then a couple of days before the big day I received an email saying that they were not sure they were going to have enough room inside the arena, so drivers were to watch it via satellite at the adjoining ballroom. I was really bummed out that I could not be there to watch it live but tried to make the best of it.
The day of I did my morning driving duties and then told my friend, Cheryl that I needed to follow her back that evening so I would not get lost. We got there and went to the room we were supposed to go to. Inside were a small handful of people because we were pretty early. I turned to Cheryl and said "forget this, let's go to the arena and see if we can get some seats." So we did. we got there right when we saw our stake going in to get there dinner so we followed them in and to the seats. We found plenty of room for u and were able to enjoy the performance live. It was amazing. When the Prophet came in everyone stood up and cheered. It was so exciting and fun to see thousands of youth excited about the gospel and showing love towards our Prophet. I took some pictures of different performances that I liked and included them below.
I spotted my friend Kim who was a dance director for one of the regions, in the crowd behind President Monson. She is in the top left of the picture wearing the orange sweater.
This was our stake, they did the fox trot to the Pink Panther song. It was really cute.
They gave flags to all the kids so that at the end they could wave them for the prophet. a little 12 year old kid sitting next to me had one and I kept getting poked by it almost the entire performance. And then at the end during the waving he couldn't control his waving and I had to keep dodging the flag. The 12 and 13 year olds were able to be there, they didn't dance, rather were in the audience watching and then at certain parts were singing, I was happy Kenedy could be there but never saw her in the crowds.
I loved it and am so happy for the youth and for what they represent. What an amazing Gospel we are able to be a part of!