Last Week and Forward

Hi everyone, I'm back from Zions Camp and just loving being with the family after 8 days away. What a great experience though, and I feel really blessed to have been able to go. It will be difficult to sum up the entire experience in a post, but I'll give you a summary and a rundown of some of the highlights. As I've mentioned before, this is a spiritual / high adventure camp for young men 14 and older from five Bay Area stakes. I was the only person from our ward who went for the entire week, so the lot of getting all the kids up there and back fell to me, which wasn't always fun. We got everyone up there, and everyone home safely, but it was what happened in between that was truly remarkable. I think it would be easiest for me to go day by day so I don't forget stuff...sorry if this gets long.

I was the captain of a group of ten boys, and I also had a great co-captain to help out. The boys were from all different backgrounds - some stable, good families, some broken homes, some hardened attitudes, some soft hearts.

Saturday: drive the boys up, take the scout swim check in the 57-degree lake, set up camp with military style platform tents, and have our first devotional speaker. Cold night, uncomfortable sleeping conditions, not much sleep

Sunday: I taught Priesthood to our ward boys, and it went really well as I walked them through the plan of salvation in missionary/investigator style. The bishops passed the sacrament to all the boys, and since our bishop asked me to fill in for him, I was able to do that. We had fun skits prepared by the boys that night, and then probably one of the best fireside/devotional speakers I've ever heard - a man I didn't know telling us about his conversion to the gospel and his reliance on the Spirit - VERY powerful. Another cold night, again not much sleep.

Monday: this is the crown jewel of Zions Camp - the Gospel Adventure. It's basically a walk through the mountains visiting different stations set up around the camp theme. This year's theme was the Savior, Jesus Christ. So they started us out in a simulated time machine to transport us back to biblical times. Then as we walked along a path around the beautiful lake, we came upon apostles asking us to help them fish. We gathered fish from the water with them, and then moved on to the next station, which was helping Peter pull in his fish when his nets broke. The third station was a man who was hurt, and we put him on a stretcher and carried him to an inn, where we had to pay money to let him stay there (the Good Samaritan); it was a great lesson on using money for wise and righteous purposes. The next station was the Upper Chamber and the last supper. We ate dried fish, and simulated Jesus passing the sacrament with pita bread and grape juice. The boys then washed each others' feet, and we sang a hymn before moving on. Next we saw Lazarus' tomb, and heard from him how Jesus had awakened him from the dead (as I think about it, I may be out of order a little, but you get the idea). After that, we went to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Peter, James, and John were distraught about their Lord being taken away be soldiers. This was a very memorable depiction because it really portrayed the confusion and anguish they must have really felt at first, and then as they talked they portrayed the light of understanding coming to them as Jesus' words were brought back to their minds. It was very powerful. That station set the scene for the next stop, which was Peter wailing frighteningly loud that they had crucified Jesus. This was disconcerting for many of the boys, but appropriate as they really understood what this was like. The boys carried a heavy cross up a steep hill to hear from the apostle John, and then brought it back down in a very somber mood. The next stop was the tomb, where the apostles ran up after hearing that Jesus' body had been taken, and Mary and Mary Magdalene talked about hearing and seeing Jesus. In the final station, we gave the boys letters from their bishops and parents, and asked them to walk alone up the mountain, find a quiet place, read the letters, and pray. My co-captain and I went down the hill and waited in a peaceful meadow. When the boys started making their way back, we could really tell they had all had a powerful experience with the Spirit. They all had tears in their eyes, and it was obvious they had felt things that were very personal and pure. One rough-looking Samoan kid asked if we could all kneel and say a prayer, which we did, and that put a perfect cap on what was probably the most spiritual experience those boys had ever had. There were also a couple more spiritual events throughout the week, and they were extensions of the gospel adventure. One was late at night and the boys were taken quietly to a remote boat dock where a walkway had been built just below the surface of the water so they could walk on water to Jesus standing out in the water - It was amazing. Every kid I have talked to says the gospel adventure was the highlight of the week, which is saying something as you'll see next...

Tuesday-Friday: 15 mile, 3,000-ft elevation climb grueling hike (every boy reached the summit and got home despite some serious difficulties); kayaking and swimming in the lake; shooting rifles, shotguns, and archery; high COPE (basically ropes courses high up in the trees: leap of faith off a platform 50 feet up a huge tree, a traverse across one cable and some hanging ropes 50-feet high between two trees, and flying squirrel, which was the whole team lifting one team member high in the air by running away with the rope); rock climbing up sheer cliffs (using ropes of course); jet skies, boating and tubing; low COPE (team building challenges; and mountain biking. I have the bruises, scrapes, and dirt embedded in weird places to prove how intense some of these were, but they were all awesome.

We also had a couple of other good firesides, including Coach Steve Cleveland, formerly of BYU basketball and now with Fresno State. They were all good. The week ended Friday night with a testimony meeting in which a couple of kids from my ward bore very unexpected and special testimonies.

So now I'm home, and we're all together as a family again. It's SO great to be back with Angela and the kids - they're so amazing to support me in this, and I love them greatly.

This week will hold a lot of things getting back to work, and also a lot of moving in the evenings as we are moving pretty much all week. Thanks in advance to Dan and others for helping out with the move. We have great friends here who really look after each other.

Brig got a haircut on Saturday and looks very handsome. His curls were getting out of control, so it was definitely time. He sat on my lap during the cut and didn't do too badly. We're really looking forward to G&G Richards coming out for a few days around the 4th of July!