Youth Conference 2004

By Michael Palomaki

This year, the Singapore Stake Youth Conference was held at the Mawai Eco Camp in Kota Tinggi, West Malaysia. The Youth chose the Chesire Home for disabled senior citizens as the hub for their pre-conference service project. Seeing how smilingly the residents responded to the Youth’s offer of food, brought a warm glow to the hearts of many. Following the lunch, games such as “Pass the passer”, where a prize would be passed around to music and “Bingo” were played. Short walks around the facility and chatting were also some of the activities conducted. The experience might have proved novel and challenging for a number, but was on the whole, uplifting and rewarding.

The big day arrived, where several weeks of planning were finally going to be put to the test. Before arriving the Youth had the privilege of listening to the apostle Elder Dallin H. Oaks and his wife, Sister Oaks at the Bukit Timah Chapel. These two talks were an ideal start for the 2004 Youth Conference, which got all the Youth into the right spirit before embarking on the four-day camp.

After the talks, the Youth piled into two buses where the moments of the most memorable Youth Conference EVER, began. Upon arriving at Mawai camp, plenty of mixed reactions abounded. Some were surprised, others were frustrated and some were plain positive about the situation and just saw it as a fun way to spend four days with friends. The living conditions at the Camp were not first class, but they were bearable. Simple sleeping quarters where beds were nothing but a canvas sheet supported with sticks, and bathrooms equipped with only the most basic necessities didn’t seem enough to suit people’s needs at first. But as the Youth engaged themselves in various activities, the overall attitude of the group improved. On the first night the Youth cruised down the Sedili River and watched fireflies. The remote location of the Camp also gave the Youth the opportunity to gaze at the stars, which would never be possible in Singapore.

Day two, post-breakfast, and the Eco-Camp had planned some activities such as a river exploration cruise, raft building competition as well as a visit to the infamous Orang Asli Water obstacle course. Later during the day the 1^st and 3^rd Ward organized some Telematch games. Some of these activities included “Squishy Squares”, “Character Charades” and quizzes from the biographies that the Youth had submitted earlier. These events were all extremely fun, but the undisputed highlight of the day had to be the cooking contest. Each group had been assigned to cook various chicken dishes. The dishes ranged from Lemon Chicken, Chicken Curry, Roast Chicken and Sweet and Sour chicken. It took only two hours for the teams to make their own fire, cook a meal and even decorated their platter! Everyone proved quite successful, but the final nod was to be decided by the camp’s local chef, who gave it to the Lemon chicken. After dinner two Firesides were held in succession. Brother Marty Tidwell spoke about the topic of the Youth being “A Chosen Generation”. Later, Sister Tiffany Lai and Sister Lisa Chiu along with brother Steven Seow held a music appreciation workshop using material provided by Sister Helen Ho.

We kick-started day three with two workshops, one conducted by Brother Lee and the other by Sister Lim Li. Brother Lee dispensed handouts prepared by Brother AC Ho which tested the Youth’s understanding of Old Testament Scripture mastery verses, while Sister Lim Li taught the Youth an improvisation of traditional Malay dance, Diki Barat. After the workshops, everybody was anxious to take on the Mawai Eco Team Challenge. A total of nine stations were set up for the different groups, designed to challenge both mental and physical strength. The Eco Challenge was very fun, and everybody finished a bit more sweaty, muddy and wet than they were before. Later that night, everyone got together for a traditional campfire, during which a showcase of skits and musical performances were displayed and a sing-along segment with guitar accompaniment to ended off! There were plenty of laughs from the whole group that evening. Performances like the Bachelor, Short skits from incidents during Youth Conference, Love Stories, Rap Songs and Melodramas were a great way to cap things off during the last night of Youth Conference. Special permission was given for the youth to stay up later than usual, and most chose to while the time by playing cards or just talking with friends.