By Cole Mayer, Diocese of South Dakota
Official Youth Presence journalist

Today was a simply easy day.

As a group we headed to the convention center. Once there we were there we went in a meeting room with the officer of public affairs communication Neva Rae Fox. In this meeting we were able to understand the media that would be covering General Convention. We had the opportunity to sit in the media room. There, Neva Rae answered questions we had about the media and how to handle the professional journalist.

Once we were prepared enough to handle the media we headed to the floor of the House of Deputies! This was the first time the general convention official youth presence saw there spot of placement on the floor. This was a meaningful moment. Our spot on the floor is the fourth row on the far right of the house. While we were checking out our spot, President of the House of Deputies Bonnie Anderson came down from the stage to greet us and invite us up to the stage to look out on the massive floor of the House of Deputies.

Up on the stage we took a photo with Bonnie. She invited us to go wander the floor to find our diocese. I Found South Dakota just a couple rows over.

Once off the floor we went the youth hospitality suite. From there we went to the House of Bishops but when we arrived we not able to go in because the door was locked and a note was posted “see you at noon” (it was 11:30 when we were there.) While we were outside waiting to find something us to do, the Bishop of Indianapolis ran into us at the door so we were able to meet her as well.

From there we went to lunch which was at mall food court. After lunch we all went to the exhibit hall until it was time for the first meeting of the house.

The meeting in the House was just Ordination for the deputies when we got to see first hand what the house of deputies would be like. It was very short and I learned a lot. Once the floor session was over we headed to the baseball game at Victory Field, home of the Indianapolis Indians affiliated with Pittsburgh Pirates. The game was great and there were fireworks after then game. Sadly we didn’t stay for them because we had business to work on about the next day. When the fireworks went off though we made time stop to watch the fireworks.  After the fireworks we had closing prayer and headed to bed for a big day ahead of us!