3200 kids and a rodeo arena

That's what it takes to do a 14 stake rehearsal for the YCC (Youth Cultural Celebration).

As you may have heard, President Monson is (probably) coming to Twin Falls for this temple dedication thing. The night before, as has become the tradition (soon to be doctrine?), the youth of our temple district will WOW him with a celebration of what it means to live and love and learn the gospel in Idaho. President Ward (of our stake presidency) asked me to drop over and take a few pictures (I took 350+) to commemorate tonight's rehearsal.

I can't imagine having the responsibility for pulling off such a thing. 14 freaking stakes! FOURTEEN! It was, at times, a genuine madhouse.

There was also plenty of standing around, waiting our turn to use the "stage" while some other thing was being resolved. Amazingly, no one lost their temper, and the kids stayed pretty focused and gave a pretty good showing. There are a few rough edges yet, but it's coming along. The final number promises to be quite a thrill, with all the kids on "stage" at the same time, with flags galore.

I keep saying "stage," because it is, in fact, a rodeo arena. I guess they're planning to put in some wooden flooring and a bunch of donated sod, but tonight it was all dust (cough). My camera will never be the same.

After the rehearsal there was a concert for the kids. Rich Crowley arranged for a member of MoTab (who was, in a former life, a member of a European boy band) to play. It was a bit of raucous fun. By the time they got around to that the light was gone, so I didn't really get any good pictures of that.

The MoTab guy (Alex Boye) prodded the kids in the right direction. He made a nice comparison between the Book of Mormon and cell phones, and he asked the guys to go on missions and the girls to promise to 1) not date losers, and 2) marry an RM.

Jacob and I skipped out of there just as they began the final number (RUDE, I know), and saved ourselves 45 minutes getting out of the packed parking lot.