Timberline: Sacrament Meeting

Timberline: Sacrament Meeting

(Timberline part 19)

Each year the Timberline staff goes up to camp the weekend before camp begins. When I was first involved we would get permission from the Bishop of the ward that the Scoutmaster was from to be able to hold a sacrament meeting on Sunday morning. So we would set up camp on Saturday and then do things on Sunday that were more restful and in keeping with the Sabbath. That is when the boys would finalize their lesson preparation and even teach it to other members of the staff. The highlight for me though each year was to participate in the Sacrament meeting. We would prepare and bless and pass the sacrament and then some years we would have assigned speakers and other years a testimony meeting. Then after the main part of the meeting was ended the scoutmaster would offer the closing prayer and also dedicate the campsite and ask for divine protection and guidance to be with us during the week. That was the reason why I knew who was always in charge and why we didn’t have any major accidents or problems. One year in particular was very special to me because we had sung “How Great Thou Art” for our opening hymn and during the meeting it was cloudy and we had low clouds pass through the trees and area where we were meeting. It was like a light fog and the place was ultra quiet. It was so special. I loved those meeting and the spirit that would attend us there. In later years we stopped the practice of holding sacrament meetings since we realized that we still didn’t have proper priesthood authority to hold them and thus began going down the mountain to a local ward for sacrament meeting. They were also very special but I will always cherish the ones we were able to hold in the quiet of the mountains.