Jan. 9, 2012

Summer Camp: Pine Island, three campfires/alone time.

As a scoutmaster for Boy Scouts of America in the Utah National Parks Council in Utah I had numerous experiences that were lessons for my life. Some of these lessons I realized almost instantly while other took on greater value through my life.

One such experience has just recently (tonight, I am writing this at 3 am) come into my mind and I have suddenly found a use for it in a new business that I am starting. I have been involved in many Multi-Level Marketing programs in my life and have never succeeded at them mainly due to the fact that I really haven’t wanted too. But there are other reasons as well of course but now I am in one where I want to succeed and in fact must succeed and will by putting the principles learned on this campout to use now.

You see I went on the camp to try out an experiment that I had been told about in one of my scouting leadership trainings at Camp Maple Dell in Payson canyon near Payson, Utah. The instructor told us about a camp where he had taken 8 scouts on a summer camp. These were each boys that had been unable to go to their own troop camps for some reason during that summer and he still wanted them to have the experience. He was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and with that background and knowing each boy also were members he wanted to be able to teach them some principles learned in the church about themselves and their value and destiny. He decided to have a special set of campfires during that week to teach them how to put on a campfire and also to teach them the gospel.

He told us that he had a great experience with that camp. The first night they got to camp he told them that they had 50 minutes to plan for the campfire and then he would get the last ten.  The second campfire that they would hold on Wednesday of that night they would have 30 minutes and he would have 30. Then the final campfire for the week on Friday night they would get the first 10 and he would use the last 50.

The first campfire went something like this as I remember his story.  They used the first 50 minutes and did skits and songs and told stories. Then he took the last ten and told them that they were somewhat experiencing what their ancestors had experienced as they crossed the plains to come to Utah. They were camping out, cooking meals over fires and hiking through the wilderness. Although it was really no where like what some of the pioneers experienced they were still doing the same types of things. He then related some stories about his ancestors that were similar to the experiences of these boys.

The second campfire they sang more songs, played more skits and told more stories and then he took the last 30 minutes to tell them the story of Joseph Smith who at age 14 had questions about God and which church he should join. Joseph he reminded them was about their same age when this all started for him. He then told the story and how because of his faith and desire to know the truth was actually visited by the Savior and His Father. He bore his testimony about the truth of that experience and ended it. It took 30 minutes.

The third campout they sang a few songs and did a couple skits but they only had 10 minutes. He then talked about Jesus Christ and His life and what it would mean to them if they studied His life and tried to become like him. He talked about planting the seed of faith and letting it grow in them and about how they would need to nourish it and help it to flourish. He took 50 minutes and the boys all sat there totally listening to what he had to say about the Savior. Well little did he know that one of the fathers was standing outside of the campfire in the trees listening to this event and taking it all in rather well himself only from a different perspective. You see this father was a sportsman and always put sports before scouting in his sons life. He felt that it was more important to learn to play sports that to just go camping and earn merit badges. Well after the campfire ended he came into the light and talked to the scoutmaster and told him how he had watched the boys as they sat there listening to him and how every one of them were glued to his words. He had never seen a group of boys sit for so long and not lose attention to the speaker. The scoutmaster then simply replied to him “You could never do that of a football field could you?”

Well, that story stuck a cord in me and I decided to follow a similar plan for my summer camp that year with the scouts. I got the committee together and told them where I wanted to go for camp that year and we began planning.  I had camped as a boy near Palisade Lake in the Granddaddy Basin of the High Uintah Mountains. It was a special place for me as I had camped there several times and knew the lake quite well. As it turned out though the committee member who was in charge of getting the tour permit and lining up the area could not find that camp in the basin. So I relented and told him we could go to one nearby called Pine Island lake and so that is what was planned.  I then told the boys of the place and how I wanted to do the campfires. They agreed and went about planning their portions of each campfire program.

The first day we went in was a bit taxing on the boys since we had to hike about 7 miles up and into the basin then over to Pine Island lake. I had taken all of the maps of the basin and knew where Palisade lake was located but went ahead and camped at Pine Island. It was a bit rough for one group of the boys because the scout assigned to bring the tent for them didn’t have the poles so they had to devise a way to string it up into the trees with ropes. It worked but it took a while for them to get it up. We finally got everything done and they did a little exploring and fishing and then we ate supper and started the campfire. It went pretty much just like the campfire program that I was taught and we went to bed.

The next day just because I had to prove to myself that I could go cross country and not get lost I set out with my maps and hiked the ½ mile through the trees to Palisade lake. I then followed the trail around through the woods back to camp. As a scout I always took a camera (little Brownie Instamatic) with me on our camps and one year had photographed a tree that had fallen across a small marsh. The trunk had broken several times and because of some of the larger branches holding it up it formed an M shape across the foot deep water. I had taken a picture of it but over the years as I looked at the picture I could not remember where along the trail I had photographed it. Well as I returned along the trail back to the camp, coming to it from the opposite direction of the day before when we hiked in, I suddenly realized that I was seeing that exact same tree and it was only 100 feet from where we had set up camp. I suddenly realized why my assistant could not locate the other lake because I was to find that tree just to satisfy my years of yearning about it. I stood back and in what I thought was about the same place took another picture. It had been over 25 years since I had photographed that tree. (When I got home I compared the images and the tree had lost a lot of the smaller limbs but basically looked the same however the background trees had all significantly changed. It was a lesson on how many years some of those dead trees have been in that forest, much longer than I had ever before expected.

The next day we hiked up to Four Lakes Basin, a place I had always wanted to go as a youth but never made it. Some of the scouts and one scoutmaster swam in the lake but only for a very short time. It was terribly cold. One of the other adults and I hiked up above the lake around the cliffs and back down coming back to the lake form the opposite side. He was tall and had long legs and I found it a challenge to jump across some of the rocks that he seemed so easily able to cross. However as we came back down I found that I had the advantage since I could easily go downhill while his knees prevented him from going quite as easily. After returning to camp I spent time also preparing for a hike that we would take the next day cross-country to Governor Lake. I had a great fear as a youth of getting lost when up in the mountains and so partly for myself and a lot for the boys I had decided to do a cross-country hike using the maps and letting them use their compasses to direct us. I had three patrols that year so I had each patrol responsible for part of the hike. So after a great campfire program and it went just like it was suppose too, I told them of my plans for the following day and we went to bed.

The next day was great. The boys found their way to the lake. We even had plenty of time to stop and fish along the way. We spent the entire day and got back late that evening just in time for them to make supper, eat and go to bed. I felt that it was a great success especially for me. I had now dispelled all of the fears of my youth through two experiments that week. One, for me personally, on Tuesday and then one for the boys on Thursday.

As we held our scoutmaster planning that night before retiring I told the other three adults that were with me that I would be gone the next day and they would be responsible for the boys. I would leave before everyone got up and would return in time for supper and for the final campfire. I arose the next morning before 6 AM and left the camp. There was a smaller lake higher in elevation from Pine Island and yet quite close to it so I hiked up toward it looking for a place where I could be alone and yet not so far away that I couldn’t keep a little bit aware of what was happening in camp. I was almost straight up from the camp so every now and then I could hear what was happening but not well enough to really disturb what I had planned. I spent the entire day thinking and praying about each boy and leader. After I had spent time on one of them I wrote a short letter to him telling him of my testimony and things that I felt he needed to know. I did this for each scout and each leader. I found myself several times during that day wondering if I was really listening to the spirit or just writing things I thought that they needed to know. I proceeded however and did it for each one of them. (It was fun that during the day I was visited by a little hummingbird three times, It could see my red scout shirt and came up to see if I was a flower and had something to offer it to eat. I have often wished that I had.) I also prepared my part of the campfire that night by collecting a small flat rock and a small pine cone for each person. My talk was going to center on planting a seed of faith and my testimony about the Saviors visit to the Americas after his crucifixion. The rocks at that time we are told in the Book of Mormon were rent,  cracked and even thrown around as the earth was in such tumult over the Saviors death. The rocks we were camping and hiking around that week were a testimony to me about the truthfulness of that account.

I returned with my letters, rocks and cones to camp around 6:30 PM and called all of the scouts back from fishing etc. so we could have supper and be ready for the campfire as planned that night.  The campfire went well and as I talked to the boys about the rocks and the cones I handed each one of them one to keep and take home so they would remember what we had talked about. (Years later as an adult one of the boys told me he still had that rock and pine cone.) I waited until the very last and then put them on silence for the rest of the evening. I gave them their letter and told them to go to bed, and without talking to anyone else, read the letter, say their prayers and go to sleep.  Later that night after they had all gone to bed one of the scoutmasters came to me and said, “How did you know that I had been struggling with the very things that you told me in that letter?” I told him how I had spent the day and had often wondered if I was really listening or just saying what I thought that I should say and for me his question had just answered mine. I then knew that the Lord had directed my thoughts that day for each of them.

We hiked out the following day and I will always cherish the experiences I had at that camp. The Lord had taught me something that I would end up needing years later.

Well as I lay in bed tonight I suddenly recalled this camp and with my studying the last few weeks I realized that for me to succeed with the business of helping other people that I would need to let the Spirit direct me in much the same manner it had for me during that day on the mountain above Pine Island Lake. I will need to get to know them through a conversation with them and then in a way go to my mountain and find out how the Lord would have me act in their behalf. I won’t be able to tell many of them I am sure that it was the Lord directing me but I can later bear testimony of it as they become friends and I know more about their religious beliefs. Until that time it will just be setting an example for them and living the gospel so that it is evident to them why I live as I do and why they are so important to me.

Jan 8, 2012 following Stake Conference

Stake Conference Jan 7-8, 2012

Today the Stake Presidency was released. President John K Frischknecht, Ist Coun. Collin Allan, and 2^nd Coun. Scott Summerfeldt.  The new presidency was then sustained as President Scott Summerfeldt, 1^st Counselor David Jensen and 2^nd Coun. Ryan Moss.

The visiting General Authorities were Elders Marlin Jensen and Christopher B Munday. Elder Munday had a great sense of humor only bested by Elder Jensen’s. It was a lot of fun listening to them. They gave us some great counsel and I have decided to pass it on to you as well.

Pres and Sister Frischnecht both spoke about families first followed by our visiting authorities.

Elder Munday spoke yesterday of the importance of families and most importantly teaching children the gospel. He said that we need to teach not just the what of the gospel principle but also the why. He told a story when one of the general authorities (Elder Nelson) came to his stake in England and asked for two youth speakers to give talks and bear their testimonies of the gospel. He picked the two youth that he knew would best represent the gospel (and make him look good). They got up and both gave the basic same talk about all the things that we do not do in the gospel. After they sat down Elder Nelson looked over at him and simply said, “Interesting.” That dwelt on his mind for some time after conference was over and finally he came to the understanding that those he had chosen knew the whats of the gospel but did not understand the whys. He determined that from that time forth he would teach the whys. The whats of the gospel are the word of wisdom, temple marriage, home teaching, plan of salvation, etc. The whys are the reasons why  the Lord gave them as commandments. Health and strength by obedience to the Lords giving the word of wisdom. Forever families and our becoming Gods are two of the whys for temple marriage. Looking out for the welfare of our fellow men is the why for home teaching and becoming like God the why for the plan of salvation. He admonished us to always teach the whys with the whats as we teach our children and as we minister in the gospel.

Elder Jensen then spoke about our need to tell our stories. He said that as we tell our stories the spirit of the Lord can teach our children and grandchildren and beyond why we have testimonies and where we may have struggled to learn to obey the commandmants. They will be strengthened by knowing our stories.

(I thought about Hayden’s gift two years ago that started me on that very path by starting the blog of my stories. I hope they mean something to you and to your children.) He told about his great grandfather getting a piece of horehound candy in his stocking one year and that was all any of them got that Christmas. So he decided to put a plan into action where he could enjoy that candy all year. He would lick it a couple of times and then wrap it in some tissue and put it by his bed and each night before bed he would take it out and lick it a couple of times and by so doing it lasted a full year.  He then said “And in me is a part of him.” He then told a couple other stories to illustrate things that he had learned form his grandfather and father ad then again said “And there is a part of them in me.”

  

Both talks were really good and we were there a full two hours that didn’t seem that long.

Today several bore testimonies from the former Stake Presidency and the new one as well.

Then Elder Munday spoke about the fact that they had all mentioned that their wives were so much a reason for their being where they were. Then he said that there was a quote that hangs in their home in England that reads, “She who sits and waits also serves.” He then spoke to the youth and admonished them to be faithful to their parents and the gospel and to the young men to serve a mission even if they don’t want to do it. He also spoke about having personal priesthood interviews with each of your children every fast Sunday. He explained that as a Bishop he once had a father and son come to him and the father told him that his son had told him something last night that he needed to tell the Bishop. After the interview he asked the father how he had gotten his son to tell him first about the problem and he then explained that he had always had PPI’s with his children even from before they could really talk and that was why he son came to him first.

Elder Jensen then talked to us and explained that as a Mission President he found that the Bishop’s were not using the Elders to speak in Sacrament meeting and he found out that the Bishops didn’t use them because they couldn’t give good talks. His wife then went to work to find out how they could be taught to speak better He explained that she found out that the best speakers always did 4 things. 1. Give an introduction to the topic. 2^nd. Tell a story and preferably one from your own experience and 3^rd back it up with a scripture that supports the story and then finally bear your testimony in closing about that principle and the gospel.  This is something that might well be taught to your children, especially as they get into their youth talk giving years. Teach it by doing it every time you talk as well so they learn from example also before that time. He then gave his talk following those very steps. It was really good.

At the end he summed up his testimony by saying something to the fact that when all is said and done if he has someone who will call him Honey, and children that he helped to make call him dad and grandchildren who call him Papa that it will be good enough for him. What a testimony to the strength of a family. 

Jan. 8, 2012

Finding Steve's home in Palmyra

While I worked at Signetics I was asked at one point in my career there to be a maintenance supervisor. I was on dayshift and was the supervisor over the Thin Film manufacturing area. I had about five people who reported to me and with whom I would hold daily team meetings before we started our shift. I was the one who had started the practice of having a team meeting each day because I found it easier to start everyone on the same page that way. I would go in a little early and get a run down on all of the equipment that was down and then hold the team meeting where I would make assignments and then send the technicians out to interface with the other shift before they went home. As part of my duties I was also required to do semi-annual reviews on everyone. One year I remember being pretty upset about one of the reviews since my supervisor had ranked one of my men pretty harshly. I knew I couldn’t really refute what he said but also knew it was very unfair since I knew that he was one of my best techs. It was somewhat obvious to me that my supervisor didn’t like him and wanted to get rid of him so he was trying to make him mad enough to quit. At least that was how it appeared to me. After the interview I could tell that Steve was pretty upset but there was not any time where I could get with him since his shift was over and he quickly left work. I decided snce I knew that he lived out in Plamyra that I would go out and see if I could find him at home and talk to him. I didn’t know where in Plamyra just that it was in Palmyra. SO I decided that I would just let Lord take me there. I drove and when prompted would turn and then finally when I began doubting my ability to listen to the spirit I stopped and asked a farmer where he lived. I was one street away and a lot closer than I thought possible.

Well he was on a tractor in the field so when he saw me he stopped and I went out and got up on the tractor with him o we could talk about it. I don’t recall now anything that I said but it was fairly apparent that he knew he wasn’t wanted and yet by the time we finished talking we both felt good about it. He stayed with the company a few more weeks until he was able to find another job closer to home and left to work there. I will always remember the incident however not so much for the outcome but rather the experience of knowing the Lord loved us both and I was able to be directed to within a few yards of where he lived.

Jan. 7, 2012

Guess who? 

Then look at the last couple of pictures.

Jan. 6, 2012

Church Song Festival with Leesa.

Singing has always been a part of my life and especially since the time that we sang as a family for Sacrament meeting one day and Alma taught me to sing the alto part in that song. (Seems like the song was Love at Home but I am really not sure at this point.) Anyway I have been able to sing the alto part to many song since then and did so until my voice became of age and I had to start singing the base line instead. I have fun even now though using my falsetto voice and joining Marie on the alto parts of several songs that I had learned in my youth.

We had a number of opportunities to sing also and Leesa and I had a chance once to be part of a church wide festival where we sang in the large basketball facility on the University of Utah campus. We practiced the songs at the stake center for several weeks before we boarded a bus and traveled to Salt Lake city to the U of U campus where we stayed in the dorms and then practiced for several hours each of tow days with the actual conductor who would lead the singing for the event. It was a grueling couple of days with even some threats that it would be cancelled from the conductor because some of the youth thought they were there just to have a good time and thus didn’t sing during the practices.

Well the threats must have worked because we did sing a quite a few numbers, even had a record made from the performance and grew to love music even more than before after it was done. I can’t remember the numbers that we sang anymore and don’t even know where the record might be but I will always remember the feeling we had as we performed with such a large number of youth mostly 14 to 16 years of age.

Jan 5, 2012

Baptism Interview at the County Fair and baptism.

The summer of 1961 was as special as any summer could be for an 8 year old member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and that was where I was during that year. I can somewhat clearly remember working hard to make sure I had the Articles of Faith memorized and was ready for any question that the Bishop could throw at me when I had my baptismal interview. I also remember waiting for the call to go into the Bishop’s office as had all of my friends prior to that. I was the youngest in the group and consequently the last.

The day finally came when the call came and Bishop Moon set an appointment with me. We were to meet at the county fair ( a pretty important event in those days in Duchesne County) and I was somewhat surprised that it wouldn’t be in the Bishop’s office. I was to learn at a fairly young age that the Lord’s work could be done anywhere that there was peace and quiet. However you wouldn’t expect there to be much peace or quiet at the county fair with the concessions booths, exhibit halls buzzing with people and all of the livestock barns full of noisy animals. However when the Bishop and I met in the cab of his pickup truck it seemed that the world was locked out and it was just the two of us. I cannot remember what was asked or if I thought that I day failed any of the questions but I do remember sitting there in the passenger side very intent on the interview. (It is kind of like the day I was married, the most important date in my life and the main thing I remember was pacing in front of the temple because my bride and sweetheart still wasn’t there and they were driving from Mapleton to Manti that day to be there.)

Anyway I must have passed since I was baptized at the start of the next month the day prior to fast Sunday. It was the 2^nd of September 1961. We went to the font in the old Stake Center in Duchesne where I spent Sunday’s for the entire segment of my youth growing up years. I even reported to the High Council in that building the day after I got home from my mission and the day I gave my talk in Sacrament meeting and the day I headed off to Snow College for my sophomore year for which I was two weeks late. A lot of other things took place in that building as well and it was a major part of my life. But there was a baptismal font in that room down the hall towards the Junior Sunday School room. We had an opening exercises in the Cahpe; after I had gotten dressed in my white clothes and we watched as other children my age from the stake were baptized. I don’t remember how many but I do remember sitting there by the font watching two or three before it was my turn. Dad then led me down into the water, of which I was very afraid of in those days, and we proceeded to do as we had practiced. I let dad hold my wrist with the one hand and I grabbed his arm with my other hand. He said the prayer, something he had done for all of my other older siblings and then proceeded to baptize me. As I came out of the water having survived the drowning the witnesses kindly told my dad that my toes had come out of the water. So we repeated the event a second time and I survived it as well but the witnesses then informed my dad that he had missed a word in the prayer, a prayer that has to be said word for word as the Lord had directed Joseph Smith. So we tried it again and that time dad said the prayer correctly and stepped on my toes so I wouldn’t come up. I am sure it was as hard on my dad to have to have done it three times as it was for me and I guess that was what really ended up making it so special in the long run. My fear of the water after two times was gone and I listened closely to the prayer the third time and we were there in it together until it was right.

I have baptized several investigators in the mission field, all six of my own children, done baptisms for the dead and even had an opportunity to baptize a new convert in the ward here at BYU and everytime I have practiced the prayer repeatedly and stepped on the toes of the one I was baptizing because I remember so well the events that occurred on the day I was baptized at a tender young age of 8 years old. 

Jan. 4, 2012

33 Degrees Below Zero

We recently had a spell of cold weather this winter when the temperature outside were 10 degrees below zero and Clair reported toward the end of the spell that Duchesne had finally gotten above zero during the day. It reminded me of one year in my youth when it got below zero for several days and I still had the assignment to milk the cows and do the chores. I started doing chores around the barn when about eight years old. I would go to the stack yard and pull some hay down into the manger for the cows and then return to the barn to milk the cows. I became the main one to milk the cows though later in my teen years when the last son (Lynn) prior to me left for his mission. It was during one of those years when the temperature had dropped to well below zero for several days and one of them was at minus 33 degrees and Dad and I were the ones left to do the chores. They were not real hard but I never really considered them to be real pleasant either. However when the temperatures dropped during that winter they were even far less pleasant. I felt sorry for myself having to go milk the cows in such cold weather but felt even more sorry for the cows that had to eat, sleep and be milked in such weather. Cows are not really very particular where they leave their piles of processed hay and grass (manure) and even less particular about where they sleep either and the two places are often the same. It was always a joy to have to press your head in front of their hind leg to prevent them from kicking while you were milking them but the fact that they had been laying in manure made it even worse. That also meant though that their bags were also many times also laying in manure and so we would have to take rags soaked in warm water and wash their teats and bags before starting to milk them. It was more than one time during these cold winter days that the rag would still be frozen while hanging on the wall in the barn and putting it into the warm water was necessary not only to get it wet but to thaw it out from the previous session of milking. Those cows probably enjoyed the warmth of the water and the warmth of our hands as we milked them but I often worried how it felt as they were released from the barn back into the cold air outside of the barn. Maybe that’s why they would then go lay down in another warm pile of processed hay (manure) that would then be there to wash off the next time we milked.