Cebu Temple Cultural Celebration

For months now the youth in our Stake (organized group of congregations of our church in a designated area) have been practicing a selected dance named the Itik-Itik for the Cultural Celebration that goes hand in hand with the Cebu City, Philippines Temple Dedication.
FInally on June 13th the big day arrived and youth from all over the regions the temple will serve joined together to put on a show which shared dance numbers telling a brief history of the Philippines. The coliseum was quite large and extremely hot due to the lack of air conditioning. We had spent the entire previous day there being orientated and performing run-throughs compiling each regions dance number into a nicely flowing event. Even though the youth and the youth leaders had spent so much time sweating away into nothing everyone was excited because President Monson was scheduled to be there and was going to address the audience. For many this would be the first time for them to be in the same room as the Prophet since General Conference is so far from the Philippines. Ryan and I had also heard that Elder Oaks (an apostle for our church) was there staying on the temple property and assumed he would be there also but we were so surprised to also see President Eyring walk the red carpet as well!

We had such great seats and although we were up in the lower box we had chosen seats where they would walk right in front of us and we would be beside the stage where they would be seated to watch the cultural celebration. It was so amazing to see everyone rise as they entered, waved and made their way to the stage but one of my favorite moments was when the entire coliseum rose to sing the Philippine National Anthem. It gave me goose bumps to hear them singing together and to have so many church leaders there to feel the energy pulsing through the crowd. Another great thing about our seats was we were able to look over and watch their reactions and see if their expressions resembled how we were feeling. Ryan even managed a shot of Elder Oaks where it seems to be that he is looking directly at the camera, kind of spooky.
The dances were so amazing and it was obvious that each group of youth had spent so much time to be able to dance together so perfectly. I have so many amazing pictures from each dance that I can't post them and of course I had 1 or 2 favorite dances that really caught my attention. By far my most favorite moment of the evening was when the last song had been sung and all the youth participants flooded the stage to stand before President Monson, President Eyring and Elder Oaks. The entire coliseum floor was filled with these amazing youth, to see how excited they were and think of all that time and dedication they had put into the celebration it really awed me. It was a breathtaking sight and it got them all standing ovations from the Church Leaders who looked so touched.

I know that this has been an experience that happens once or twice in a lifetime and I'm so thankful that I was able to be a part of it!
Click here to check out some more of the pictures from the cultural event and the performers!