Jan 29, 2012

1st Ward Handcart Trek: Dairy Fork

While our children were in their teenage years we had the opportunity to go on three treks. Each of them had their own special challenges and experiences.

The first one we were involved with was one where our ward rented handcarts and took them up to Dairy Fork in Spanish Fork Canyon. Jeff and Linda Baird were chosen to be the youth leaders on the trek and had some real challenges.

I don’t remember how many families we had or carts but there were probably around 8 or so. The first day we were to trek to a site at the bottom of the hill and camp there. As we were traveling we were also going to only eat what food the pioneers would have most likely eaten. Our first trial was one family where the parents had taken watermelon and hid it in a stream so that when they got real tired and rested they could have a cold piece of watermelon to refresh them. It was not good when they were the only family eating watermelon at that stop. We also trekked a lot faster than we had thought possible so we actually decided to go to the top of the hill to a large meadow where we had planned to stop the second day and stayed there that night. It was an interesting place because the meadow was filled with wild onions that would start to let off scent when walked upon. We actually ended up putting onions in our stew that night for supper.

We had a great night and an evening fireside that worked out really well. Jeff and some of the others whom had had Timberline Training used their expertise to put on quite a fun show.

The next morning we got up and it looked like it was going to rain so we quickly had breakfast and then loaded the carts. One family loaded their cart from the back not watching how they placed the weight and it suddenly tipped backwards spilling all their equipment on the now wet ground since it had started to rain.

After everyone was packed up we started on over the ridge and down the other side. It was now raining pretty good and as we started down the road on the other side of the hill it was getting really muddy. Marie even slipped once and almost went under one of the wheels. We decided to stop the carts and see how much further we would have to go to get to some level ground where we could set up camp to wait out the rain. Then we had the second major trial of the trek. One of the families decided they were going to turn around and not wait for the three or four of us whom had gone down to check out the lay of the land. They decided to start pushing their cart back up the hill and go down to the other side. Well, carts are meant to be pulled, not pushed, and consequently one wheel came off. This caused some major stress as everyone was getting soaked and since they wouldn’t wait for the decision it was placing major stress on the leaders and especially the youth leaders. Jeff at that point started to suffer from the stress and became somewhat ill. We finally had to put him into a truck and take him back. We had decided, due to the actions of the one family, to go back down the hill to where we had planned at first to stay the first night. There we would set up the games and everything that we had planned and do them there.

 We got all of the carts turned around and started back up the hill as the rain stopped and it became a beautiful day. The roads were still muddy but dried out fairly fast. We went back to the place where we were going to camp and set up our tents. It would be interesting to note at this point that the mishaps to the carts were all in just one family, the family that had put watermelon in the creek and decided they were not going to wait for their leaders decisions in the rain.

That night for our campfire we had a lesson (talk) from Sister Karen Long who gave experiences from the actual handcart treks showing where there were also families on them that would not follow the council of the leaders and caused a lot of hardships to some of those treks as well. Jeff got better after we had gotten him warmed up with the heater in the truck and was able to then again lead the trek. He didn’t really want to very bad but did it and did it well.

It was at that camp where two boys from our family decided to hike out to the café at sheep creek, across from where we started to trek up Dairy Fork, since it was only about three miles away. There they had a hamburger and then came back to brag about it. It caused some major problems as well. We also found out that they were taking food from other families as well since they were so hungry.

Well things got calmed down and we played a number of games and then after the campfire program went to bed. We arose the next morning and decided to do a service project for the area before we went back home. We decided to clean up some campfire pits that had broken beer bottles and trash in the campfire pits. Once again we got to see the difference in people as it became apparent that some of the boys were doing as little as they possibly could. We finally assigned them to areas where they were the only ones and they had to have it cleaned up before we could leave. We ended up actually cleaning up the trash along the road as we trekked back to Sheep Creek where we loaded the carts for transporting back to town. We met back at the church and had a real good meal made by the mothers of the youth and it all ended on a great note with a lot of valuable insights to people personalities and how the Lord will sometimes step in and teach them small but effective lessons.

Jan. 28, 2012

Kick the can / No Bears (Yesteryears Night Games of today)

When I was young and lived on the farm, we were quite a ways from town so there was very little light to give illumination to the yard. Well that made it very dark outside especially if there were no full moon. During the summer we liked to play outside games. Our yard had a lot of great places to hide and it was really a lot of fun to play the Hide and Go Seek types of games. The two I remember best were “No Bears Are Out Tonight” and “Kick the Can”. I used to love to go around the backside of the house so that I could come in from a different vantage point than what might be expected, plus it took a lot longer to go around so everyone else would already be distracting the one who was it. Mother loved trees and bushes so the yard was filled with great places to hide behind. We even had a hedge that could be walked around and gain closer proximity to the safe point. It was always fun and to this day I do not know why we didn’t get hurt a lot of times where it was so dark and there were ditches for watering the lawn and plenty of other obstacles upon which to trip. It was even more strange since we played it many times with friends who didn’t know where those obstacles were located. However I do not ever remember a single incident where someone was hurt, but that could be due to selective memory I suppose.

Jan. 27, 2012 Portrait of Christ

In my previous post I mentioned that mom and I had just finished reading a book called "Heaven is for Real". In it it mentioned a girl that had seen Christ and 4 years later painted a picture of how she remembered Him. This is the image that she had painted.

Jan. 27, 2012

Jesus Shoots Down Power

This past week Marie and I have been reading a book called "Heaven is For Real". It is the story of Colton Burpo who during an extremely severe illness was in the operating room and went to Heaven for 3 minutes. He was three and a half years old and a few weeks to two years after he recovered he continued to tell his parents about Heaven. It is a very special book about a very special child or a child just like all other children in the eyes of Jesus. One of the chapters talks about how he saw Jesus shoot down power from Heaven upon his father who is a minister in the Crossroads Wesleyan Church in Imperial, Nebraska. He told his father that while he would be giving his sermons he could see Jesus shoot down power upon his dad to help him preach his sermon that day. I find this all very interesting and wonder what his dad would do if asked to listen to the missionary discussions. Anyway it is a very special look at Heaven from the eyes of a child who had been there. 

Well the reason for this post is that I like the way he explained help from Heaven while we are teaching. I was asked to teach the High Priests Group last week and I was to use the talk by Elder Christofferson on Repentance. I spent Saturday making some models from match sticks that I could use to represent the five parts of repentance that he choose to expound on in his talk. While preparing it I thought about how to present the materials just as I always do and wasn't coming up with much other than the little match stick representations to show a burning of bridges talked about in the third point. Well as I gave the lesson my mind was taken to Ammon, Lamoni, and Lamoni's father's story and there were several parts of that story that fit perfectly into illustrating those 5 points of repentance including the burning of all the bridges in every direction as you repent so that you can't go back and repeat sins committed. Well when the Lamanites buried their swords and weapons and kneeled before the attack from the other Lamanites they had definitely burned their bridges. As I thought about the lesson later I realized that in all my preparations for the lesson that story had not crossed my mind at all yet like a Shot of Power from Jesus it came when I needed it most. 

Jan. 26, 2012 Happy Birthday Loren!!

Jeffrey and Jonathan Nackos

Jeff Nackos had been on my Timberline staff one year and did a really good job. I had asked him again a second year and he wanted to do it since we had recruited his younger brother John to go to Tline that year as a candidate. We started our staff development meetings in Jan and as time went on Jeff became more and more involved in some other things and wasn’t sure he should continue with our staff. He decided to stay however for his brothers sake so that he would be there with his brother, We had actually had John signed up the year before but then he couldn’t go at the last moment.  Well this year as we got closer to the course we filled up rather late and I knew I needed all of the youth staff that I had which for several months had really been in question. I had told Jeff if we didn’t fill up that he could be on the list to drop out first if he still needed. Well just a month or so before the course date John had been on an overnight camp up Hobble Creek. He and a friend decided that they needed something from town so they got in the car and took off a little too fast for that canyon. As they came around one corner the driver lost control and rolled the car. John had his seat belt on and the window open but somehow his head was caught between the road and the rolling vehicle. He was killed instantly if I remember correctly. I went to his funeral with several of the staff members and remember a story one of the speakers gave about John. When John was just 5 years old he had been sick and in the hospital. The speaker was his Bishop at the time and was called to the hospital to give him a blessing. He recalls that he was blessed to be able to live and he did pull through from a point where he was at deaths door. The Bishop then recalled that as he left the hospital that he had a very distinct impression that John was only going to be here for a short time and that he would be taken at a later date. John was a very loving and friendly kid and had lots of close friends as he grew older. Then at age 14 he was taken and the Bishop was now no longer his Bishop but told his parents about his experience at the hospital which he had never shared before with anyone. He also felt though very concerned about the situation and was granted a dream where he saw John walking down a green pasture between two older men dressed in white. He recalls seeing John turn toward him with a huge smile and then letting him know that he was doing just great and for his parents not to worry about him. Jeff was hit very hard with this accident however and came to me and told me that he wanted to be off of the staff. I then told him we were completely full and I really needed him and promised that if he would come he would do a lot better. Well he did come and during the week there were several times when it was very obvious that he was struggling with John’s death still very hard. Each time it happened however the rest of the youth staff would get around him and help him. Toward the end of the week he told us how he was so glad he had come because they had helped him through a very difficult time and he was very thankful for their friendship.

Jan. 25, 2012

Kicked out of English by Mrs Evans

When I was in my senior year at Duchesne High School I was on the yearbook staff again and I was still the photographer and the editor that year. We had to get excused from classes each time we had to do pictures of various groups and clubs. It wasn’t very many times since we didn’t have a whole lot of them at DHS. But there were enough that it became a little bit of an irritation to the teachers. Well it wasn’t bad enough that we had to get excused for one session but when we ended up having to redo a group that apparently was the straw that broke the camels back for Mrs. Evans. I do not remember what we were studying that day but I am sure it was only English, since that was what she taught and it was not my favorite subject so to speak. I may have been a little heavy on getting excused form that class to do the pictures too I suppose, I really don’t remember for sure. But I do remember her getting extremely upset when I mentioned that I needed to leave class a little early to go do some retakes for one of the clubs. She proceeded to kick me out of class and so I left and went down early to the library where mom was working and told her what had happened. She was also the Yearbook advisor so that was part of the reason for going there as well. I don’t remember any more of what happened and I am sure things got straightened out some how and mom probably had a lot to do with that as well. I most likely didn’t get out of English quite so often either but I really truly do not remember since the most dramatic part for Mrs. Evans and I both had already passed. We were still friends and the yearbook got published and I even graduated from high school as Salutatorian of my class with a record of only having been kicked out of class once in my entire thirteen years in school to that point of my life.

Jan. 24, 2012

Insurance Salesman

After Signetics shut down I went to work for Kara Chocolates in Orem. It was a good job while Bishop Anderson owned it and while Keith Cavanaugh worked there. Then two brothers took over and started to run it. They took the good chocolate that was used and no longer used it and went to a cheaper chocolate. They fired Keith and that left me to run the molding plant. They started systematically firing the women who had worked there for several years and hired Spanish people who couldn’t speak English.  For the most part they were good workers but very slow. They would have me run the molding plant, when the rush seasons came along, on a graveyard shift. That didn’t bother me as far as the hours but it did get pretty quiet since I was the only one there. Then we started doing work for Guiradelli and that was pretty fun. I did learn to love dark chocolate because of their dark chocolate. I would only run the graveyard shift for a few days until we got caught up and then go back to dayshift. A year or so went on this way and then things started to go a little south. They would have me go in on graveyard and run the molding plant but they didn’t plan things out to where I would have sufficient materials to run an entire shift so I would end up just sitting around for several hours until my shift was over. I kept telling them how much chocolate was needed and they would promise me it would be there but then never come through with the promises. I started to study insurance and became licensed in Health and Life insurance and also got my Securities License. I then started working with a group of insurance people so when the next graveyard shift came along I told the boss that if there was not enough materials to run an entire shift I would be quitting. He promised me that there would be plenty. Well I got there that night and was able to make chocolates for a total of one half hour before I had exhausted every single bit of materials that I could find to keep the plant running. It was a Friday night and so I took the key to the front desk and shut down the plant and locked the door behind me. I just couldn’t in all good conscious sit there 7 and a half more hours. I then began working for A Plus insurance and found out that I was just not an Insurance salesman. I tried for sometime but finally David Nemelka told me I was too honest to sell insurance and to get out. He then helped me start Treasured Photography. While starting that I also worked for a Safe company called Ft. Knox. It was fun but then the photography started creating major conflicts with it and I had to quit. I was having to take so many days off that it wasn't fair to them to keep trying to make both of them work.

Jan. 23, 2012

Hunting Rabbits with Don Hansen

One of my favorite things to do after school during the warmer parts of the spring and fall was to meet Don Hansen, my best friend, and go rabbit hunting. I used my father’s old single shot .22 caliber rifle and I still remember the day Don showed up with a new semi-automatic that could shoot 9 or so bullets before having to reload. Of course with a single shot I had to reload each time after I had fired off a round. I learned something very valuable however and that was that I had to make the shot count and I would go through a lot less ammo since I could kill the rabbit with one bullet rather than shooting the dirt up behind it for 8 shots or 9.  We would go up on the bench and could shoot almost any direction except toward town that was three miles away. We would go up to the Big Hollow and walk along the top and sometimes drop down a little and walk along the little hills. It was not uncommon to see 5 to 10 rabbits at a time. That was part of the reason for hunting them was due top their numbers and the damage they would do to the hay crops. I got to be a pretty good shot but now sometimes can only remember the suffering and pain that I caused a lot of rabbit when I didn’t kill them with the first shot. I really have no desire to hunt them now but gladly take a camera out and shoot them with it instead.