Cultural Celebration . . . . . .AMAZING!

Last night I had one of the best experiences in my life. I was able to go to the cultural celebration (thanks to Randy being the YM Pres. and working at it) and be within 15 yrds of the prophet of the Lord. It was so amazing! Pres. Monson was hilarious! While we were waiting for him to pull up you could just feel the anticipation everyone had to get to see the prophet. It was an amazing experience just to be close to him and feel the love he had for everyone. You could just feel the spirit overflowing from him. It was such a great testimony builder to see him and KNOW that he was called of God. The first thing he said when he got off his golf cart was. "I like big crowds!" And a big crowd it was. Just the youth performing was about 2500 kids. I had to take three pictures just to get all the kids across the field. I am the worst photographer ever so all the pictures are kinda blurry or dark. Sorry I need to learn how to use my camera!

From the moment that the first song started to play I had tears in my eyes because it was so awesome to see all these youth doing such an awesome thing. It really gave me great hope for the future of the church knowing there were so many faithful youth willing to spend so many hours on such an uplifting activity.

This is Elder Holland and Elder Costas waiting for the Prophet to come in.

Pres. Eyring.

This is actually after the performance when all the kids came up to shake Pres. Monsons hand. The guy on his right was his security man and he started yelling at the kids to get back because I guess they started pushing. It kinda reminded me of the Savior when he told all the childre to come to him after his deciples told them to stay back. Pres. Monson just sat and shook hands and talked to the kids that came up.

This is blurry but before he sat in his seat he stopped to talk to the little boy in the red shirt ad wiggles his ears for him. It was so funny. I have never seen anyone wiggle their ears like he can!

We weren't allowed to take any pictures during the performance so this is after it was over. It took about 20 minutes or so for him to actually make it to his gold cart because he kept stopping and talking to little kids. Everyone softly started singing "God Be With You Till We Meet Again." It was so beautiful. No one wanted to leave we all just stood there and watched his every move.

I did finally get one good picture! I could write for hours about the amazig spirit that was there last night just because the Prophet was there but I won't do that to you. I keep saying it was amazing but I just can't think of any other word that describes it better. I was in tears for about 90% of the performance!

This video is of Pres. Monson and Eyring singing a little Mexican ditty. It was really funny! I hope I got the right one.