This is the last of seven posts about our Philmont trip at the beginning of July. They will be most enjoyable if you read from the beginning instead of reading them in reverse order. You can do this by looking on the right hand side of this blog and scrolling down until you see the Blog Archive. Click on July 2013, and you'll see all the posts listed by day. Choose the day you want to read and enjoy!
Like I had every day this week, today I woke up super early before the sun rose. Herman and I sat outside our tent to talk and watch the scenery as the sun rose in the sky. I really love that. I should really take time to do that more often when I am at home. There is something completely peaceful about those moments before so many others wake, when you can just relax and think.
Herman wanted to take some time this morning to have a little testimony meeting for our family so that we could take time to share our feelings and experiences of this week. We originally wanted to do this at sunrise, but with all of the activity of the past day, we decided to let everyone relax. Instead we decided to have our meeting after we were packed up and ready to go. By the time we were packed, many families had already left. Philmont seemed a lot more bare. I was beginning to get some feelings of sadness for leaving. There is something so calming about being out here in the west, away from a lot of civilization. It almost makes me want to move. Almost.
Brief side note about my ankles -- They looked awful. Totally awful. I'm not sure what I did yesterday, but I woke up with ankles that looked worse than when I went to sleep. They were the size of nerf footballs. And they only got worse as the day progressed and we drove home. I looked up possible causes, and well ... I should never do that. It always freaks me out. We decided to just get through the day and worry about the swelling if it didn't go down after we had been home a few days. Unfortunately I felt like I was wearing some sort of compression device the whole trip home. No fun.
After mostly loading our vehicles we headed to the amphitheater area to have our family meeting. Herman decided to have each of us bear our testimony, youngest to oldest. The younger kids did their standard testimonies, touching on the things they believe are true about the Church. I was excited to hear what Spencer had to say after his eventful week, but his testimony was fairly standard as well. I was a little disappointed, but I know that it was possible that he just didn't want to share his deeper feelings in this environment. You never know.
Laney and Savannah both gave nice testimonies. Then it was my turn. Once again, I felt like I was not able to adequately say exactly how much this week meant for me. I felt as if I had received lots of direct revelation this week. I felt like I received further witness that Heavenly Father truly knows who I am and has an active interest in the decisions I make. I felt like my life was almost rebooted and renewed. It was wonderful. Yet I know that the things I shared with my family just didn't live up those feelings and experiences. Sometimes I feel like I am on and can express anything I am feeling. Sometimes I am off, and this seemed to be one of those times.
Then it was Herman's turn. He, of course, was absolutely eloquent as he shared some of his more personal moments from the week. He told the kids what Heavenly Father had asked of him this week. He explained how he was going to try hard to do this. He cried as he shared his feelings about this week. It was really beautiful. I'm glad that he was able to finish us out.
Until ...
Spencer interrupted by saying, "I have something to share." I didn't know what to expect. Sometimes Spencer has to make a goofy comment whenever something emotional is happening. I think that he does this because weepy feelings make him uncomfortable. But this seemed different, so Herman turned the time over to him, and he shared an experience he had on the mountain. On the first day that the groups really hiked a long distance they had been hiking for a long time when that huge storm I blogged about on Monday popped up. On the mountain there was a lot of lightning, and when you are hiking and lightning strikes you are supposed to get in this lightning stance. It involves crouching low to the ground and making yourself as tiny as possible, but it seemed as if they weren't really allowed to kneel or sit. They had to squat. Apparently they had to keep that position for more than 45 minutes. Give that a try one of these days. It is no picnic. I can't imagine how they were able to do it.
Well, in the middle of this Spencer decided that he really didn't want to be on this mountain, and he really wanted to go home. He was hating this experience, and he was especially hating this experience while it was pouring rain with lightning everywhere. He told us that he decided to say a prayer, and he asked Heavenly Father if He could please, please, please make the storm end. And ...
The storm did not end!
Now this could have been a bit of a crisis in faith for Spencer, but he told us that as he was squatting there he could tell that Heavenly Father had helped him to have the strength to stay in the position he needed to be in while carrying his pack. The storm did not leave, but Spencer had the strength to endure through the storm.
As Spencer shared this story my heart was filled to overflowing. What a wonderful, wonderful experience for him to have. And what wonderful knowledge for him to have about the way that Heavenly Father operates. He doesn't always take away the storms that we face in our life, but He can help us to be strong enough to endure them. That is knowledge that very few youth have. I would even say that very few adults have that knowledge. Unfortunately, in order to get that sort of testimony you have to sometimes be in the middle of difficult circumstances. Hearing Spencer's experience and the lesson he learned from it reinforced the lessons that I learned this week about different areas in my life. I learned that it is important for the youth (and for me) to have experiences that might push me outside my comfort zone because it is in those experiences that we can best be able to recognize the hand of God in our life. It is in those experiences that we can truly begin to recognize our own abilities and self-worth. Spencer was able to show that through his wonderful mountaintop experience. I am so, so grateful that he was able to have such a wonderful, enlightening experience, even though I am sad that he was so miserable for that moment in time. Good news though -- He did end up liking the hike a lot. He is planning to plan a big hike experience for the scouts in Missouri, and he also is thinking about coming back to Philmont next year to participate in the Rayado hike, a 21-day wilderness experience that sounds INSANE. I think that Spencer having that experience was worth whatever cost it took to come to Philmont this year. What a blessing!
So our week of adventures at Philmont came to a close and our family headed to the cars to make the 13 hour trip home. I started to get a bit emotional as I walked away from our little tent city. I was going to be sad to leave our little paradise in the middle of New Mexico. It has been such a good week for me personally and for our family as well. Hopefully as we return home and get back into the flow of regular life we will be able to implement many of the ideas we learned here. I'm on fire and ready to get started. Let's roll.
No comments:
Post a Comment