This year’s YC was held at the Kota Rainforest Resort in Malaysia. Starting on a bright and sunny morning, we met in the parking lot of the church on Bukit Timah. After running through the rules, we were introduced to our head instructor, Abbe. He taught us how all the instructors and leaders would be getting our attention – They would yell: “LDS, Oi!” and we would holler back: “Oi!”

After arriving at the Resort, we had lunch, were briefed, and then split up into our four separate groups (soon to become the LDS Warriors, Goldfish, Three-O, and Jester 4). The bad news was that rain stopped us from doing our planned outdoor activities. The good news was that our instructors knew lots of games and kept us busy playing. When it was time for us to get back together as a group, we learned some songs and played more games. Some games we played together, and other games against each other.

When the fun and games were over, the leaders presented us with what we all had been waiting for – our room keys. The rooms were a vast change from last year’s accommodations – there were beds and electricity! I, for one, took time to marvel at how comfortable the rooms were.

Following our dinner, Bro. Dave Lai talked to us on how to “Return With Honour”, our theme for YC. Accompanied by a cool slide show, we had fun guessing what a certain picture was. One of the most random, scientific-like guesses was that it was a nuclear fission generator. No surprise that a guy gave that guess. It turned out that it was an engine room to a roller coaster. The roller coaster was compared to life: it has its ups and downs and we should finish what we start. When the fireside ended, we had some snacks before “lights out”.

My room had a fairly early bedtime – sometime around midnight. I know that’s really early for YC, but it turned out to be a good thing, since the next two days would leave all of us physically exhausted.

Waking up was one of the hardest parts of the day for some rooms. Multiple wake up calls had to be put into action: turning on lights, calling out, “Wake up!” throwing pillows at heads, offering bribes…the list goes on.

Each morning after breakfast, we had a workshop. The first workshop was given by Bro. Leonard Woo on ‘Living a Celestial Life’. I remember that one way we could live a Celestial life was to concentrate on the 5 C’s. Not the 5 C’s of the world: car, cash, credit card, condominium, and country club. But instead, the 5 C’s of the church: Christ, covenants, church, consecration, and charity.

President O’Grady gave us our second workshop on what has got to be the Youth’s favorite topic – ‘Dating’. He told us that we should be a princess if we wanted a prince, and vice versa. To bring home what makes a prince and princess, we got to watch a little bit of Shrek. Like everyone else, I got caught up in the movie and was disappointed when it ended. I cheered up a bit when I found out we got to color next. President O’Grady had us design and draw posters that advertised dating beginning at age sixteen.

Physical exertion and fun times was what awaited us after our workshops. Some of the things that we did were: rock climbing, abseiling, Indiana Jones, ultimate Frisbee, river cascading and a water campfire.

Rock climbing was by far the most physically challenging activity. Not one person made it to the top. Kelson Nef and Cheryl Woo were the two youth who got the farthest. It seemed everyone else got stuck at a certain spot. I got hand cramps from holding on so long and not being able to figure out how and where to move.

Abseiling was nice, easy, and relatively uneventful compared to the other activities. Although Vicky Yap got a little over-enthusiastic kicking off, and ended up slamming into the wall a few times.

Perhaps the most challenging team activity was called Indiana Jones (aka The Plank Thing). It was a water obstacle course that required a lot of balance, organization and teamwork. It turns out that Mir, one of the camp instructors, had very bad balance – she ended up falling in four times! Some youth may have disliked this activity with a passion because of the high chances of falling into the muddy water, but I loved it.

When I first heard we would be playing ultimate Frisbee, I wasn’t too excited about playing; probably because I wasn’t very good at it. Once the game went into motion though, I got caught up in it and had a blast. Fast paced and intensely competitive, we were exhausted by the time we finished.

River cascading was one of my favorite activities. All we had to do was walk upstream a bit and then sit down in the clear, clean, and cool water. After being all hot and sweaty, it was just awesome to sit down and do nothing. My group, the Goldfish, found clay that was beneficial for the skin – we tried and tested it. When we went back to camp, some of us looked like we had rolled around in the mud.

The water campfire was full of bare feet, swimming, games, cheers and songs. At one point, each group had to choose the ‘best guy and girl’ to go up. They then had to dance to a song with funky moves that didn’t make much sense. Nigel Wylie was voted as the best dancer from the best group, the Goldfish. One of the most random things we did was synchronized swimming. Many people thought that it was a joke when we were told we had to choreograph a routine. However, it was no joke and each group did a great job on their routine.

Whenever there was free time, you would find a good number of us clustered around the foosball tables. Whether you were playing or cheering on friends, you would get caught up in the game and be pulled into the excitement of it. Bro. Lai had decided that we should have a foosball tournament after seeing how much we enjoyed the game. Held on the last evening, it was an intense competition. The champions of the tournament were Bobbie Lee and CJ Liau of Jester 4, with a beautiful score of 5-0. Caught up in the craze of foosball, two of the camp instructors challenged Bobbie and CJ to a match. The two youth soon proved that their win wasn’t a fluke and beat the instructors. However, they lost against Bro. Lai and Bro. Lee in a very close match.

Following foosball and dinner, we had our dance. The theme was Retro. Lauryn Reay won the prize for Retro Girl; she wore a big Afro wig like the one that Scooby-Doo wore in his second movie. During music intermissions, some guys entertained us with some beat boxing. After the dance, everyone either went straight to bed or just chilled with friends before turning in.

On our last morning, we had a testimony meeting before packing up and heading home.

Youth Conference was as great as it always has been. It was a time when the youth of the church get together and make new friendships and strengthen old ones. This conference was a great beginning of many youth conferences for the new youth, and a memorable ending for the older ones, with a perfect mix of spiritual, physical, and mental fun. It definitely didn’t disappoint this year.