The Yans': Post YSA Convention

This was a very busy weekend. YSA convention started on Friday and ended on Sunday. There were over 200 ysa attended; they come from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Australia, Korea and China! The ysa were divided into 12 groups, each was given some time to get to know each other; they have to pick an object to described themselves while being blind folded. Afterward, the group has to guess who this person is when the blind fold was removed. Then, each group with a team leader was given a list of things to do to earn points while traveling Hong Kong on the way to the camp site. It is like a 5 hours City treasure hunt! Ted and I were each given a group to follow and take pictures of them. We left the Wan Chai Chapel at around 11 a.m., walking around the city to take pictures of different garbage cans, make a video like a tourist guide on a famous landmark, videos of a song sung at Pender Street in Hong Kong, took pictures of eating from a street vendor, post a picture with windmill on the back, ask strangers to post for a "heart" picture with the group ... We arrived at the camp site around 5 p.m., after dinner, the YSA committee challenged the YSA group to take a 360 degree picture of everyone jumping at the same time, they called it "anti-gravity" activity. It didn't took long for individual group to get good at jumping up at the same time but as the groups combined and the number of people got bigger, it was harder and harder to get it done. The photographer (Brother Ryan Lee and Ted) has to take pictures lying on the ground to make sure everyone jump and have their feet off the ground. It took an hour and a half to achieve having all the participants jump and off the ground at the same time. It was so cool to see the 360 degree picture!!! (sorry, I don't have a picture of it :(! )

This is a video I took on Saturday morning on the way back to camp.

It is so beautiful out here in this part of Hong Kong, Feels like we were in Cancun!

Our feet were so tired but it felt good to be busy, involved and among the YSA. We got home around 11:30 pm and has to turn around and go back the next day at 7 a.m. We got better at taking the MTR and the bus to the camp site the next day. The weather, however, did not co-operate on Saturday; it rained and poured for the whole day. Luckily, most of the activities were indoor. There were spiritual workshops (Saturday school) in the morning, then 6 games/activities (workshops) that the participants rotated through out the day. Initially, I was concerned that they were only fun games, but I was very impressed that each of the game has a spiritual element to it. Each workshop leader would end the game activity with a spiritual thought that ties the game to our lives! The one game that surprises me most was the group game right after lunch before they break up into groups again. I will call this game "the birthday hat"; Each participant was given a birthday hat with a number on it, the participant does not know his/her number, and they are not supposed to tell any one their number, the hat were numbered from 1 - 100; during the first part of the game, participants were asked to pair up with someone that would bring their combined sums as high as they could; to conclude this part of the game, they found the couple that had the highest combined sum, the winners were given a pair of movie tickets. They also found the couple that has the number 1 and 98; when asked why the one with 98 would pick the 1; the answer was that she thought she had a pretty high number and then she feels no one is going to pick the one with the 1, so she wants to help him out!

The participants were then asked to flip over their number card, they now have a different number that they don't know and were now asked to find someone that they could add up to be the least in sum total. It was a very simple game but has the biggest impact on the YSA; many got up and bore testimony of lesson learned during this game! It is amazing how the Spirit could teach so many people at once with what each person needs!!!

The evening finished on a high note; a few bishops and stake presidents were invited to join the YSA at an evening dance. There was a live Band. They also showcase the winners of this year's YSA Got Talent activity. Ted and I got to dance together a few times before leaving early (in the rain). We got home at 10:30 p.m.

The part that I liked most is the testimony meeting on Sunday. There was one activity where the participants were asked to paint with their hands, fingers or feet. People thought it was very elementary, However, the canvas had been taped before the painting and when all the tapes were removed, it reviewed a banner that has the YSA theme and logo on it. It was a beautiful banner! At the testimony meeting, we have YSA from different part of the Stake and other country bearing testimony of the spirit they felt and the lesson they learned. We hope and pray that some of these YSA would find lasting friendship and might be some will result in future marriages! We see many YSA that could make good couples, but you can't tell them to go date! They have to want to do it themselves!!! They are happy where they are, but true happiness comes when family units are formed with children born and raised in the covenants!!

Now we will need to turn our attention to FSY; we got informed that we have a venue to hold the activity !!!! We will keep you posted on details coming up.

Facebook posted a video of the pictures we took on Saturday morning, I am going to post the link here for your to watch: https://www.facebook.com/audrey.chanyan/videos/10154353015678303/

This year's YSA theme: Change begins with ME, Photo Booth #1

The hat game.

Painting on the banner.

Finish products: What life lesson do you learn from this? To me: we are in this together, each contributing our part, no matter how small or insignificant we think, it all adds up... It's like the story of Jimmy Stewart in the "It's a Wonderful life" movie!