YSA convention day 3 Morning " That's a looonnng table"

Hurrah! MT managed to wake up early enough so we could go to breakfast and this time I managed to notice the drink machines :-)

I got ready for church and met up with MT and we walked over to the armitage centre again. I know some people were moaning about the distance but it wasn't that far in the scheme of things. We had been asked to be in our seats by 9.45 at the latest for a 10am start. But we made sure we got there in plenty of time. some of the other leicesterites had already arrived and had saved us some seats . however with the usual YSA timing people were still streaming in after 9.45am. ( see need to add alarm clocks to the must bring list :-). The sacrament meeting began and they had the looooonnnggggeest sacrament table I have ever seen. Although with 900 + people in the hall it was hardly surprising. A lot of stake presidents and their wife's had turned up for the meeting as well. Maybe they were checking up on the YSA. no it couldn't be that. We're all young, sweet and innocent, as if we would get up to any mischief ;-)

AF performed a musical item closely followed by her sister SF who gave the first talk, which was very good and a interesting insight into a ward at BYU. Seven sisters getting engaged in one week. If only it was that easy over here. *sigh*. A chap from Northampton gave the second talk, unfortunately I can't find his name as I can't remember where I put the programme right now. We had the intermediate hymn then a talk by sister johnson followed by her husband Elder Johnson over the 1st quorum of the seventy. Now unfortunately I didn't take any notes in during his talk which I now bitterly regret as I was getting extrememely uncomfortable in my seat at that point in time. I could shift round much because as they were fold out seats if I moved it shook the whole row. But Elder Johnson's talk was by far the most interesting to the YSA as I think it intrigued and worried people in equal measure and proved to be a fascinating talking point for the rest of the day.

I'm going to have to paraphrase here unfortunately but he was unhappy at the ball the night before and felt terribly upset that we had been subjected to it and would do everything in his power to ensure something like that didn't happen again. Now he did go into greater detail in part and I'm sure some other people took notes so if you want to know everything I'm sure it will be easy to track down, but this was the basic thrust of his talk. When we moved into the priesthood lesson several people did attempt to ask him what specifically had upset him about the ball. His response was to show the strength of your booklet and to say that the answer was in there. Despite the efforts of several priesthood members he refused to be drawn on the subject and the lesson moved onto other things. However something then happened which absolutely horrified me, I happened to glance behind me and two YSA were playing games on their mobile phones. A member of the quorum of the seventy was teaching us and they were playing games on their mobile phones. I didn't say or do anything mainly because I was shocked to the core then anyone could do anything like that. Why? why did they do that? I found it absolutely beyond belief and quickly resolved to focus every scrap of attention onto the lesson lest I was tempted to say something.

Now the discussion this prompted among some of the YSA was fascinating especially to the conclusion that most of them jumped to, which was that Elder Johnson had, had a problem with the dancers who came to demonstrate some dances due to some of the outfits the girl was wearing, which were a bit revealing. However although he may not have liked the outfits I don't think it could have been sufficient to prompt what he said in his talk, as firstly as far as I'm aware the dancers were not YSA and secondly I think he would have just expressed his unhappiness to the committee and not to the whole convention. I have just been rereading the strength of youth booklet and I think, and I emphasis I think I know where he was coming from. The section of music and dances states ;

"Choose carefully the music you listen to. Pay attention to how you feel when you are listening. Don’t listen to music that drives away the Spirit, encourages immorality, glorifies violence, uses foul or offensive language, or promotes Satanism or other evil practices. Dancing can be fun and can provide an opportunity to meet new people. However, it too can be misused, Plan and attend dances where dress, grooming, lighting, lyrics, and music contribute to a wholesome atmosphere where the Spirit of the Lord may be present."

I'm guessing and I must emphasis this is just my guess. That his main objections were to some of the music, and lyrics of the songs, the very loud music, and the lighting well only being provided by flashing lights and the main hall lights being turned off. I'm fairly certain he made some comment about not being able to see the girls dresses due to lack of light. Thinking about the music it was rather shocking to realize that some songs to have some inappropriate lyrics, for example the Macarena. When I pointed this out some of the other YSA though I was mad but when I pointed out a certain section, there were quite a few stunned expressions when it clicked. ( if your not sure what I mean think about the 'spoken' sections of the song and you'll realize).

It was sandwiches for Lunch again but this time I got some crisps I liked rather then Worcester sauce flavor. I thought we were going to be stuck in a queue again for a very long time but some girls who were very quick witted, grabbed bags of the lunches and started running down the queue passing them out, which meant a twenty minute wait from the day before was less then a two minute wait. Hurrah for those girls! Although no one knew what ward or stake they were from I think that made it all the more nicer.