Carnival of Life

Growing up one of my favorite mutual activities at church was Standard’s night. It was usually because it was a fun event that I walked away learning a lot about the church’s standards for the youth and why it was important for me to use them in my life.

When we moved to Chicago and I was called as Young Women president, I knew this was something I wanted to have for the youth in my ward. After talking with my bishop and my counselors we decided to have it be a Tri-ward activity where we combined with 2 other wards in our building. This added a lot of needed numbers to the activity but also added the complication of communicating and involving a lot more people.

My counselor Jess had an idea from her youth that had really hit home to her and after sharing her idea… Carnival of Life was born.

The idea was this: As leaders we were to hype up this huge upcoming activity and start a few months in advance. We wanted the kids to make it a priority to be there. We wouldn’t tell them what we were doing, just that they didn’t want to miss it.

Everyone involved was told to not speak to any of the youth about it so as to have the desired spiritual effect and lessons learned.

Carnival invitations and posters were printed and distributed. Parents were reminded and we got the kids talking and excited.

On the night of September 16 (Which also happened to by my 24^th birthday) the youth gathered in the foyer at the church. They stood in line and were each given a Ziploc bag with 20 tickets. When they walked into the gym, it was set up as a carnival.

We had booths for food such as hot dogs, nachos, funnel cakes, lemonade, etc.

We had booths for games such as balloon popping, donut on a string, face painting, cake walks, etc.

 

 

 

We had a selfie booth with props as well.

And there were prizes.. Lots of awesome prizes.. From Xboxes, cameras, games, movies, music.. All of the prizes were displayed on the stage in the gym where everyone could see them.

In addition to the game booths which all cost a certain number of tickets, there were spiritual booths that were run by the missionaries in our wards. At these booths the youth could learn about different standards and pass of scripture mastery, etc. At these booths they could earn tickets. But only at these booths.

We let the youth play around for about 45 minutes. They were allowed to do whatever they wanted.. play games, eat what they wished, etc. 

We then had the lights go out and the sliding doors to the chapel open. The kids were to stop playing games, put down their food and line up and walk up to 3 tables where the bishops of the 3 wards sat. Each youth would hand the bishop their tickets to be counted.

All prizes were forfeited before entering the chapel and the number of tickets each youth had determined where they would sit in the chapel. The pews were divided into sections, Celestial, Terrestial and Telestial. The youth were assigned to a section of pews depending on the number of tickets they had – the more you had the higher the kingdom. Typically it went the more church activities you did, the more tickets you had and the higher kingdom you achieved.

Usually the kids who only do the church activities to get tickets to use on games and food end up in the lower kingdoms. 

Once everyone had passed from the carnival into the chapel, we had our Stake President speak about the importance of the choices we make in our lives and how that affects our eternal outcome. 

During the carnival we had assigned a man to act as Satan. He was to tempt the kids to spend their tickets on the games and save up for prizes. (This was Adam's role on the top left)

But we also had another man assigned to act as a prophet. He was given extra tickets to hand out as he saw fit and encourage the kids to learn about different standards. (This was Gary's job, bottom far right)

We revealed these men’s roles in the evening and things really started clicking for some of the youth. Some were very upset when they realized they didn’t get to keep their prizes but the purpose of the evening really came to light after the Stake President spoke.

Our choices are important and they help determine our future. President Thomas S. Monson said, “May we ever choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong.” Our goal is Celestial glory and our choices will determine whether or not we get there.

Alma 39: 14 “Seek not after riches nor the vain things of this world; for behold, you cannot carry them with you.”

Matthew 19-21 “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

It was an incredible activity and the spirit was so strong I feel like we could have sliced off a piece to take home with us. (Hopefully most of us did)

But most of all. I hope we all learned--even those volunteering-- how important our choices in this life are and that we need to do our best to make the right ones.

This last quote from President Monson, “As we contemplate the decisions we make in our lives each day—whether to make this choice or that choice—if we choose Christ, we will have made the correct choice.”