Hold to the Rod

The Youth in our Stake just completed their Youth Conference experience for this summer. The leaders wanted to do something similar to the Trek experience from two years ago. But, they polled the youth and the sentiment was pretty strong against doing any hiking or strenuous physical exertion. The leaders felt it would be good to reenact episodes from the Book of Mormon. It wouldn't be a stretch at all then to have the kids leave Jerusalem and trek into the Wilderness like Lehi and his family. But, the kids put the kybosh on any hiking.

As it was there were plenty of more important BOM stories to reenact without having to do Lehi. We did follow a similar theme of Trek by grouping into families headed by Lehi and Sariah adult leaders from each ward. We asked Kyle and Brenda Christensen and Taylor and Elizabeth Jessop to do this. They were great and enjoyed themselves immensely and had great spiritual experiences as did the kids.

Jensen was grouped in a family with Dirk and Leslie Woodmansee as the parents. Either someone in the Stake knows Jensen well or it was a tender mercy, she also had Erin Clark in her family (probably her best strong in the Gospel friend.) Ailsa was in the family of Randy and Laurie Carlson. Ailsa woke up Thursday morning in a snit saying she didn't want to go. This was the first resistance she had put up. She was just feeling stressed. She was able to get off the work she needed. But, Saturday right after we returned from the camp she was scheduled to work from 5pm to 3am. The youth were to have a special meeting Sunday morning at 7am. So she didn't like that prospect. She also received a tender mercy in that she only ended up working until 10:30pm Saturday night. So she wasn't too worn out on Sunday.

We camped out on some more Sorenson family property just barely into the Weber Canyon from Oakley. Brent Gardner, Tyler Jessop/Brad Lever and I set up our three tents as close to the river as possible. There really weren't any shady spots left. We figured the sound of the river would be nice and soothing. Jodi Brewer and Claire Winstead sort of chased us away from their side of the meadow.

Unlike Trek, there was an awful lot of nothing that the Bishops had to do. I was supposed to lead a half hour discussion on Captain Moroni. But, other than that I just helped out where it appeared I was needed and chatted with people, checking in every once in a while on Ailsa and Jensen and on the kids from our ward.

When the sun went behind the hills the temperature dropped quickly and I was freezing until I got in my sleeping bag. The second night I made sure I put on my flannel jammies under my pants and wore all of my shirts. This made it bearable to be outside the sleeping bag in the middle of the night.

Beth Johnson worked with a good group of kids in the Stake to put on presentations of several of the main BOM stories. While there wasn't an extremely high level of professionalism among the players, most of them did a very good job of bringing the spirit. Honorable mention goes to Josh Sponbeck, Sean Carter, David Rosen, Weston Daw, Robbie Bagley and I'm sure there are others I'm leaving out. It was especially touching to have Pres. Weston Daw there as King Benjamin, since he is a type and a shadow of him anyway.

The kids really seemed to enjoy the "Iron Rod" experience on Friday morning. They also had lots of fun carrying out the final battle several times with foam noodle swords. Friday morning Mark Rosen (Dr. RosenRosen) set up a zip line across the river that landed almost right in our tents. Mostly, what I did that morning was help with that activity. We had lots of fun doing it.

The plan was that Saturday morning at 4am we would wake up to the appearance of Jesus Christ to the Nephites. So, I went to bed as early as possible. The kids were not aware that this presentation was planned. It was supposed to be a surprise for them. But, as I was falling asleep I was thinking, "What is the one major (perhaps most important) story in the BOM that we haven't covered yet?"

At midnight they started broadcasting the terrible noise of destruction that took place at the death of Christ. I awoke and thought to myself that it was a pretty silly thing to be rehearsing. I realize that many of the people involved are very tightly wound type A's. I could hear people carrying out tasks outside my tent and I thought, "All those people seem to have lots to do.... Why don't I have anything to do?" Within a couple of minutes Brent and Tyler and Brad let me know that it was time to get up.

It seems after I was asleep all of the adults, minus me, had a meeting and decided to do the appearance of Christ at midnight. As it turned out this was probably a better time to do it. However, it took me a little while to get my attitude behind it. I think I was also partly ashamed/feeling left out that I hadn't been awakened for the meeting and seemed to be so far out of the loop.

I enjoyed this production a lot and especially when Christ called his apostles by name out of the crowd. The Christ figure first appeared when spotlights were turned on the top of a 40 foot scissor lift that he was standing on. These were not high tech special effects. But, even people with a dull imagination could suspend belief to strengthen their faith.

Saturday morning I was able to get about 15 pieces of Bacon at breakfast before striking camp and heading home.