What’s Up?

“What’s Up?” New Era, Apr. 2014, 44–45

What’s Up?

Conference Connection

Photograph by Cody Bell

Sharing the gospel is a duty and a joy for every disciple of Christ. At the last general conference, we were encouraged to share the gospel in a variety of ways.

Mutual Activity Idea

Photo scavenger hunt: ready, set, click!

Photographs by Stockbyte/Thinkstock and iStock/Thinkstock

In a traditional scavenger hunt, it’s not terribly hard to fit a stapler, a spool of thread, a yellow crayon, and other such small objects into your backpack as you scour the town and race the clock. But what about trying to bring back a dog holding a tennis ball in its mouth? Or a daughter, mother, and grandmother all power-flexing together like bodybuilders? Yes, that’s a tad trickier.

That’s what makes a digital photo scavenger hunt so much fun. Instead of trying to locate and bring back small physical objects, the objective here is to head out and take photos. The sky’s the limit on what you decide to put on your to-find list. How about a picture of someone wearing polka-dot socks? Or a photo of a gargoyle on a building? Rusted metal? A tombstone where the person was born in the 1800s? An actual typewriter?

A list of everyday items works great if you’re planning this Mutual activity as a fun way for youth to bring nonmember friends to get to know each other in a casual setting. But you could also create a list of items that relate to a gospel topic you’re studying or even that support principles related to the yearly Mutual theme. Or maybe each person in the group chooses an object that represents something he or she is interested in, so that everyone can learn more about the others in their ward or branch.

Digital photo scavenger hunts, for all their fun, require no cost and only very basic preparation. First create a list of more items than could reasonably be obtained in a single night. Split up into teams so no one is alone, and make sure each team has at least one digital camera.

Then head out for an agreed-upon time limit and return to compare results. The team that takes photos of the most items on the list is the winner.

As a side note, ensure beforehand that everyone goes to places that are safe.