Youth Conference Hit

I was asked to "direct" the Abinadi vignette for our multi-regional youth conference in June. I said yes, hoping that the best director anywhere (my friend Mona Zabriskie) would actually direct, and I would try my best to organize everything else. After a whole bunch of miracles, this thing came together with the funniest bunch of guys in the stake.

Evan was a brilliant King Noah, with a touch of Shakespeare, and a couple tipsy priests, plus Alma and Amulon. Here he is giving his "state of the kingdom" address.  "All is well....yadayada..."

Then scolding Alma for standing up for Abinadi...

and several of the youth wanted to have their pictures taken with the cast after. They were stars!!

And since there were 1500 youth from several stakes and cities in Oregon and Washington there, our guys performed the play 6 times in a row! And they got funnier each time. Brad Wilcox, the keynote for the 3 day conference, gave rave reviews, and said, "it's like a Saturday Night Live skit!" And many more things did he say, which were all good. Thanks Brad!

Now some might be thinking, "funny? What's funny about the Abinadi story with all the cruelty and burning at the stake?" Well, we had to make a little fun of the foolish king and his worthless priests before Alma and Abinadi brought home a powerful performance about standing for what you believe in... the theme of the conference.

The conference was so power packed - and a spiritual boost like nothing else.  I just kept thinking of my own little "stripling warriors" at home, as I watched the closing night in a packed high school gym.  Stay strong, kids!