Working with the youth.

I have had the privilege of working closely with the youth of our ward over the past twenty-two years. I was called to be the 2nd counselor in our ward Bishopric in Taylorsville in 1986. Since that day I have been blessed to be a Scout Leader, and work in almost every position in the young mens program including five years as Bishop.

I just love working with youth who are so amazingly faithful. Currently, I am serving as YM President and I get to be with our amazing Priest Quorum. Part of the Priest Quorum activities is a summer camp. Since high adventure is a part of the Venture program, we decided last year to add a little spice to our activity level. Because we have such a strong obedient group of young men in our quorum, we decided to take on the activity of rock climbing and rappelling as our quorum specialty. Since this can be a somewhat risky activity, as leaders, we decided it would be prudent to take all of the Scouting training that was available. So, last year 10 brethren in the ward completed the climb-on-safely scout training in preparation for our summer camp in Zion National Park.

Although this was a fairly rigorous training, and I have spent many many hours on the rocks with my own two boys, leading a group of 24 Priests on a rappel trip in Zion Park was a very daunting undertaking. But, knowing the willingness of these boys to listen to instruction and take instruction seriously, we thought it would be a trip to remember. We spent several Tuesday night activities in the Spring time preparing and teaching the YM how to rappel in American Fork canyon.

I am very glad that we did the prep work ahead of any attempt on a real serious rappel at Zion. Some of the boys in the Quorum seriously took more than 20 minutes to get themselves to overcome their fear and back of that ledge for the first time. We could not have succeeded at Zion with that going on with everyone in the group. We decided to attempt Keyhole and Pine Creek Canyon with the boys.

We took a group of ten leaders from the ward down to Zion the week before the actual rappel so that we could go through both rappels so that we were more prepared. I am so glad that we did that because as it turned out doing both rappels was to much to accomplish in one day. To get a feel for what we did, you can click on this link to see Keyhole and Pine Creek.

The night before we did the rappels, we were meeting with the group of Priests and just going over some last safety tips. Just before closing for the night, I felt inspired to tell these young men that often the Lord will use the physical world around us to teach us profound truths, but that if we weren't looking for the message, we could easily miss it completely.

The next day, we split into two separate groups, and one group did a quiet day in the narrows while the other group headed up by Greg Hope tackled Pine Creek Canyon. I was leading the group heading into the narrows and we got back to camp before the other group. I have never prayed so hard to see the other group come around the corner back to camp. I was so worried that something might have happened to them. They made it safely back and we shared a night of stories of the rappel. We had practiced allot, but we should have spend a little more time practicing ascending for emergency situations.

The next day was our turn in Pine Creek Canyon. It was a day never to be forgotten. These YM were perfectly obedient and we enjoyed as much high adventure as I ever want to face again.

Today, I received an email from one of those YM who graduated last year. He spent time in prayer before going on the rappel and asked the Lord to show him the special meaning of the experience he was about to have. That night we had a testimony meeting around the camp fire and each YM stood and shared the deep meaning of his own experience. This is a special group of YM and I was so deeply moved by their desire to look to God for direction in their life. The are so easy to inspire and the are so willing to share.

The email I just received was from one of those exceptional YM who faced his own serious battle with cancer. He wrote a poem about the rappel experience and with his permission, I just want to share some of his feelings and his poem and letter:

You have had a big impact on my life, and
on other peoples' lives as well. I will always remember the lessons in
Priest's Quorum, where you, and the other leaders taught us not only gospel
truths, but how to recognize the Spirit. The Zion's trip we all went on has
really helped me, I remember you telling us to look for spiritual
applications to the physical things in the world. I have found many
insights from that, beginning from that rappelling trip we took. I even
wrote a poem about it. There were so many connections and applications in
that testimony meeting that night, but the ones I came up with were, the
rope is Jesus Christ. The ATC is the Holy Ghost. The belayer is the
prophet/priesthood. The whole trip is our earthly life in the plan of
salvation.

Excitement and terror were present that day,
Peering over the edge, I shout "on belay"
None of my practice seemed adequate now,
A one hundred foot drop, my question was how?

No cliff to steady my legs shaking in fear,
I would hang all alone, with help nowhere near.
My body screamed with all of it's might,
"I'd rather be stranded on this mountain all night!"

I had trained for months to accomplish this feat,
And I wasn't about to admit my defeat.
But to reach the bottom alive there was only one hope,
And that was to never let go of the rope.

Adrenaline pumping, I signaled to go,
I began my descent, careful and slow.
Through the towering cliffs of majestic red rock,
I hung in midair‑‑in wonder and shock.

It didn't seem possible, as I hung in the air,
That such a simple device was holding me there.
That small and simple device, called an ATC,
Kept threading my rope, kept it coming to me.

With the rope in his hands, a man stood below,
Earnestly watching this spectacular show.
He watched, I'm sure, for what seemed like an hour,
And that rope that he held filled him with power.

And if ever I felt that something was wrong,
He'd give me voices of warning and keep cheering me on.
His own ATC would help keep me in place,
I could tell I was safe by that look in his face.

Nothing compared since the day of my birth,
To one of the top ten rappels on the face of this earth.
And as I continued from beginning to end,
That life saving rope became my best friend.

The end finally came and my feet touched the floor,
I felt I could conquer everything life had in store.
So to those on the cliff, this one thing I know:
It's the ride of your life‑‑so never let go.

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What more can I say, Kyle is just typical of this group of YM. They are each going to be such powerful missionaries. What a blessing to be able to work with them. Life is so good!