Youth Sunday

          Hey Everybody! This past weekend was Youth Sunday! Basically, it's the Sunday where our youth group takes over and does the whole service. We did a skit and a pantomime, and our youth pastor, Joe, gave the sermon.

Alli gives her testimony.

Alli, our friend Micah and I gave our testimonies, but when it was time for Alli to go on, she couldn't find her paper which she had typed her testimony out on. So she went up and did it for memory! It was pretty cool! The skit we did was called "That's not how you pray" and it was about a guy who had recently accepted Christ and was trying to figure out how to pray, Several comical characters try to teach him they're own unique (and silly) way to pray, but in the end the guy learns that he doesn't have to put on a show for God. He can just be himself and talk to God as if He were standing right in front him. I wasn't in the skit, I was off stage with a script in case anyone forgot they're lines. The reason for this is (1) Some people almost DID forget they're lines, and (2) I got the main part in the pantomime, so it makes sense that I wouldn't have a part in the skit. The pantomime is really hard to explain, so just go to our church's website (Firstmc.org/sermons)  and you can watch the whole service there, or just skip to the pantomime if you want (It's toward the end of the service.) I also played piano for the worship songs. I was a little nervous going into it, but everything went fine. Those stage lights are really hot though. I was just ready to crash by the end of the service. At Youth Group that night, we talked about maybe having more than one Youth Sunday a year, maybe having the Youth lead the worship quarterly, so that we're more involved with the church. I mean, what's the point of having a youth group if the rest of the church only gets to see what we're up to once a year? Anyway, this Youth Sunday went really well, and I'm glad I did it. Well, that's all I've got for today, have a great rest of the day!

                                                                                                 
                                                                                             Torilinn

YPF and MMTC Camp

            Hey guys. I don't really know what to talk about today. I just felt like writing on my blog so here I am. I do have a movie I want to review, but it's only been two posts since the last review so I think I'll wait a bit. Anyway, last weekend went well. I went to see the Young Playwrights Festival plays on Friday and Saturday (Which included my play. I won this year!). All the plays were pretty good, and I got to see a friend of mine who I don't see very often (his brother was in a few of the plays). It was really nice to get to catch up and I got his e-mail so we could stay in touch. Since my play won, I got a big bag of goodies and a copy of my play's script. Some of the things in the bag included some high-quality gel pens, a giant book about how to be a good writer, several other books (A wrinkle in time, the secret garden, and others), and a T-shirt that said "On a bad day there is always writing". I'm pretty excited to write a play for next year and I think I'll write some other plays too. Not necessarily  for YPF, just because its fun to write plays and then I can do longer plays than just fifteen pages (One of the guidelines for the competition). I have several ideas, although I'm not sure how you'd do some of them onstage. Maybe I'll write a book or a movie script instead :)                                To change the subject, I can't wait for MMTC Camp (Mystic Mountain Training Center!) There was weekend long over night training a couple of weeks ago, and since I had so much fun in only two days, I just know the other three weeks are going to be awesome! I've already made some pretty close friends with some of the new counslers, and I can't wait to see them all again! I know a lot of the counelers who don't go down the water slide at the end of the day, but I think I'll probably be one of those counselers who go down everyday! (Or most of them at least). The theme this year is the wild west with cowboys and such, so I have to have a costume for the first day of each week of camp, but talk about the kind of work that's fun! I love costumes! Well anyway, that's all I've really got for now, but keep an eye for the movie review and other posts coming soon!

                                                                    Torilinn 

Board of Memories

              So, we've had this board since before I was born, and recently, I was looking at it and realized how many memories it held. So, naturally, I thought "I should write a blog post about that, because, why not?'. The board is not very big, and we've used it for lots of things like something to do our nails on, build lego sets on, be a hard back for a piece of paper so we can draw, etc. There are lots of imperfections, including dried drops of dark red and light blue nail polish, countless crayon scribbles, dents, nicks and circular indentations. These are what trigger the memories.
              To start, the nail polish. When I was probably seven or eight (it's a rather blurred memory), my friend Audi (full name Audriana) were out on my back deck, painting our toenails. Mom hadn't wanted us to get nail polish on the deck, so we sat on the board to do it. As you can imagine, we were not the most careful, dripping several drops on the board. I remember it being warm and very sunny outside, probably sometime during the summer. It's a nice memory.
              As I mentioned before, there are crayon and marker scribbles all over the board. Although I cannot remember any specific times, I do remember how much I used it when drawing on loose leaf paper. Nowadays, most of the drawing I do is in my sketchbook, so there's no need for the board. The thick sketchbook provides enough back to draw on.
              Now the circular indentations and other nicks in the board. The indentations are from Mom hammering grommets into some cards, and needing something sturdy, to work on. Not really a memory I guess, but I thought I should include why they're there anyway.
              Lastly, there are several small nicks all over the board, these being from my young self playing carpenter or some sort of inventor game involving wood and my toolbox. I had several real tools, including a real hammer, which I liked to turn over and bang the claw side into the board, pretending to be building some amazing masterpiece.
              While none of these are really very important memories, I think it's cool that the board reminds me of them all the same. And who knows what memories the board will help create in the future? :)

                                                                                                         Torilinn