Unified youth rejoice together
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CEDAR CITY, Utah — No spectators, all performers.
With energy and enthusiasm characteristic of their ages, thousands of southern Utah teens banded together to dance, sing and perform talent to celebrate the 200th birthday of the Prophet Joseph Smith.
In two stagings of the Youth Spectacular Grand Finale, held in the Burns Arena in St. George July 8, and here in the Centrum on the campus of Southern Utah University July 15, some 11,000 youth from 34 stakes performed as their families and others watched from meetinghouses via satellite.
Wearing colored T-shirts and seated together, youth in bleachers and in the aisles joined the opening Celebration Dance with the same enthusiasm as did those on the floor. Among the performances that followed were modern dance, original piano composition, videos, vocals, and instrumental numbers, a blue grass band, fiddlers, East Coast Swing Dancers, and a parade of missionaries from the Utah South Area, and following them like punctuation marks after a sentence were children future missionaries. Youth orchestras performed in both locations.
The mood quickly shifted as Elder I. Lee Ence, Area Seventy, bore solemn testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Earlier, art, leather with tooled images of Joseph Smith, poetry, photography were exhibited, and "anything they wanted to do," said Elder John W. Yardley, Area Seventy, who presided over the twin celebrations. Preparation began about the first of the year, and progressed from ward to stake to the grand finale, he said.
"The thing that impressed me most was the great unity we have had in the final events."
As they recognized each other's accomplishments, "those kids just erupted; they leaped in the air and gave a standing ovation. The T-shirts, the common dances and the songs, all those things were connectors and led to a unified feeling of the Prophet Joseph Smith. When it came time to be spiritual, they were spiritual. When it came time to have fun, they really had fun."
Testimonies of Joseph Smith increased, he said.
Floyd and Claire Rigby, area committee chairmen, said they also saw a great increase in testimonies.
"In my own ward, we had 35 youth testimonies, every single one of them mentioning the Prophet Joseph Smith," said Brother Rigby.
"The remarkable thing to me about this whole celebration is that Joseph Smith has never been in the forefront of our religion as he has now. These youth are taking (their testimonies) out to the world in a way never shared before. The adults can hardly talk about it, the feelings are so strong."
Sister Rigby said they saw "a thousand little miracles" as youth and parents were reactivated through involvement in the event.
One father said his son, a quiet young man, rarely spoke of spiritual things. "As a parent, I watched for things to see if he had been touched by the Spirit." After reading in the Book of Mormon, and participating in the event, this young man bore his testimony. "As he spoke," continued this father, "you could see the Spirit touch him, and, for the first time, he said, 'I know Joseph Smith was a prophet.' "
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