Thursday
It's always hard to get going. We met at the church at 8am, and left at about 9:45am. Drove 5 hours to Hoback Junction, in Wyoming, just a few miles south of Jackson Hole. When we got to the Granite Creek Campground turn-off there were signs posted saying the campground was CLOSED. At that point, I thought we might stop and consider Plan B. But, we were car 5 in a line of 6, and our whole caravan turned and started driving up the dirt rode -- for about 9 miles! We passed by a Helipad which the firefighters were using as a base for fighting a fire and drove all the way up to a barricade with a ROAD CLOSED sign. We turned there and ended up in a little clearing near a creek where some firefighters had left their equipment, including a huge pump. All things were indicating that we were quite near a large fire -- especially the air, which was hot and smokey. We stopped to wait for instructions while the bishop went to find a ranger. In the meantime it started to rain. Thunder lightning, and a lot of rain! See how dreary it looked! This photo is from the inside of the car, where we were waiting for 2 hours.
The bishop came back and said we were ok to camp in that area. By that time, we were definitely ready for Plan B...thinking it might be a hotel room in Jackson. The rain stopped just long enough for us to pitch our tents and hang some tarps to act as canopies and then it started up again as we made spaghetti for dinner.
In spite of all the warnings and "no fires" signs, we built a campfire and everyone gathered around it – in flip flops, shorts and rain jackets - to get warm and dry. Some people roasted marshmallows and starburst. That night we gave the kids their tribal birthrites. We had four tribes: Nephites, Zoramites, Mulekites and Jaredites. They all had a buff to represent their tribes and they made a flag to represent themselves. Luckily, it didn’t rain during the night.
Friday
We woke up to misty skies and everything damp.
We hoped the weather would clear up and we could do our activities as planned. It worked out well. We went swimming at the nautrally hot swimming pool. It was in a beautiful setting with the mountains and trees surrounding. The water was pleasantly warm and felt very clean.
It was refreshing to swim. It was warm enough after swimming to hang all our wet gear out to dry while we did our Liahona Challenge game.
Each tribe had to follow clues and use their Liahona to go to three different posts. At each post were a series of games, or challenges, that they had to complete. It was sort of like a Survivor/Fear Factor thing. Some of the challenges were physical and some required knowledge. There were things like eating sardines out of a can, naming the six women who are mentioned in the Book of Mormon…. It was a timed contest and the Jaredites (the tribe I was over) came in last place.
The two fastest teams were then combined and called Nephites and the two slowest teams were combined and called Lamanites. They were all told to prepare for battle. Each kid was given a plastic cup, as a weapon. The Nephites went to the far side of the creek and were then given huge water guns, while the Lamanites were being prepped by their leader on strategies, with no knowledge of the Nephites superior weapons. The Lamanites came charging at the creek with their faces painted and yelling war cries. The battled that ensued was very wet and crazy! Everyone got soaked. Including those of us who thought we may have immunity, since we were leaders. The water was freezing, but we were also drying off quickly because the sun was shining and it was getting hot. After the “mother of all water fights” (as termed by Bishop), we had a feast for lunch. Sandwiches, apples, grapes, carrots, chips, brownies, cookies, and lemonade. The bishop made a point of comparing our abundance of food to the meager means the pioneers had as they crossed the plains. It’s true…the amount of food we had for lunch would been all they had for several days.
The next activity was the Save our Souls challenge. This one had the most effect, as we hoped it would. We had a long rope that was strung between trees, over rocks, up and down inclines, and wound around for quite awhile through the wilderness. There was a separate rope – shorter and straight – that wasn’t connected to the long one. Each kid was blindfolded (with their buff) and told only to hold the rope and follow it all the way to the end. They did not know about the other rope. As they started the course and moved along, some of us were good influences (like the Holy Ghost) quietly guiding them along, warning them of obstacles that might be in their way. Then there were some tempters who told them to just take their hand and they would lead them on an easier way and persuaded them to let go of the rope. They led them to the short rope. Sometimes those of us who were good influences were able to guide the lost ones back to the original rope and help them get to the end. The ones who made it all the way to the end of the long rope were met by the bishop, who called them by name, told them that they made it and let them remove their blindfolds while they waited. The kids who wandered and took the short rope were told to sit down and wait at the end. They were all sitting alone, and still blindfolded, wondering what was going on and not knowing what they were supposed to do. After all the kids and done the course, the bishop and the kids who made it to his end walked over to the other group. He asked them how they were feeling and then let each of his group take one of them and guide them along the original rope until the end. The tempters were still there, but this time none of the kids let go of the rope. It was a likeness of the iron rod, and a very powerful object lesson for everyone. I loved that the kids kept talking about it amongst themselves for a long time afterward.
During the day we had several visits from the park rangers. I think they were concerned about the amount of people we had camping at that site. They were definintely concernd about the fact that we had started a little campfire, and gave us a $250 fine.
After dinner some of the kids and a couple leaders went for another swim. One had an accident and had to go to Jackson for stitches. We had no campfire that night, but we sat around our cold firepit with a lantern and had a testimony meeting. Almost all the kids mentioned how the Save our Souls course had taught them something and how they felt about where they had arrived. It was excellent.
Each tribe had to follow clues and use their Liahona to go to three different posts. At each post were a series of games, or challenges, that they had to complete. It was sort of like a Survivor/Fear Factor thing. Some of the challenges were physical and some required knowledge. There were things like eating sardines out of a can, naming the six women who are mentioned in the Book of Mormon…. It was a timed contest and the Jaredites (the tribe I was over) came in last place.
The two fastest teams were then combined and called Nephites and the two slowest teams were combined and called Lamanites. They were all told to prepare for battle. Each kid was given a plastic cup, as a weapon. The Nephites went to the far side of the creek and were then given huge water guns, while the Lamanites were being prepped by their leader on strategies, with no knowledge of the Nephites superior weapons. The Lamanites came charging at the creek with their faces painted and yelling war cries. The battled that ensued was very wet and crazy! Everyone got soaked. Including those of us who thought we may have immunity, since we were leaders. The water was freezing, but we were also drying off quickly because the sun was shining and it was getting hot. After the “mother of all water fights” (as termed by Bishop), we had a feast for lunch. Sandwiches, apples, grapes, carrots, chips, brownies, cookies, and lemonade. The bishop made a point of comparing our abundance of food to the meager means the pioneers had as they crossed the plains. It’s true…the amount of food we had for lunch would been all they had for several days.
The next activity was the Save our Souls challenge. This one had the most effect, as we hoped it would. We had a long rope that was strung between trees, over rocks, up and down inclines, and wound around for quite awhile through the wilderness. There was a separate rope – shorter and straight – that wasn’t connected to the long one. Each kid was blindfolded (with their buff) and told only to hold the rope and follow it all the way to the end. They did not know about the other rope. As they started the course and moved along, some of us were good influences (like the Holy Ghost) quietly guiding them along, warning them of obstacles that might be in their way. Then there were some tempters who told them to just take their hand and they would lead them on an easier way and persuaded them to let go of the rope. They led them to the short rope. Sometimes those of us who were good influences were able to guide the lost ones back to the original rope and help them get to the end. The ones who made it all the way to the end of the long rope were met by the bishop, who called them by name, told them that they made it and let them remove their blindfolds while they waited. The kids who wandered and took the short rope were told to sit down and wait at the end. They were all sitting alone, and still blindfolded, wondering what was going on and not knowing what they were supposed to do. After all the kids and done the course, the bishop and the kids who made it to his end walked over to the other group. He asked them how they were feeling and then let each of his group take one of them and guide them along the original rope until the end. The tempters were still there, but this time none of the kids let go of the rope. It was a likeness of the iron rod, and a very powerful object lesson for everyone. I loved that the kids kept talking about it amongst themselves for a long time afterward.
During the day we had several visits from the park rangers. I think they were concerned about the amount of people we had camping at that site. They were definintely concernd about the fact that we had started a little campfire, and gave us a $250 fine.
After dinner some of the kids and a couple leaders went for another swim. One had an accident and had to go to Jackson for stitches. We had no campfire that night, but we sat around our cold firepit with a lantern and had a testimony meeting. Almost all the kids mentioned how the Save our Souls course had taught them something and how they felt about where they had arrived. It was excellent.
Saturday
We broke down camp early. Drove up the road, past the closed campground - where we were originally headed, and went to Granite Falls. It’s a beautiful waterfall and on the far side of it was a smaller waterfall of hot spring water that created a little pool that was steaming.
We took photos there and then drove down the road about 20 miles to the base camp where we had scheduled a raft trip down the Snake River. We were all prepared for the river trip, only to find out that it had been mis-scheduled and they were not expecting us at that time on that day. So…they rearranged some things and said we could go about 3 hours later. The kid who had stitches, and one of the girls, were not going down the river and weren’t trilled about waiting for so long before heading home. I volunteered to take a car home, so they and Allie (another leader) and I left in a suburban that someone in the ward had loaned us. We were just past Afton, WY when our tire blew out.
We courageously set out to change it, but got stopped by the lug nuts. We couldn’t budge them. Some very nice German people in an Audi, stopped and helped us with the change and we made it home safely by about 6pm. The rest of the group got back at about 10:30pm. I'm usually reluctant to go to these crazy activities, but in the end always glad I did.
1 comment:
Wow, what a great Youth Conference. That place looks absolutely amazing. Your activities sound so cool and profound. The Save Our Souls challenge sounds awesome. I have moments of clarity with gospel-related things and can see the simplicity of it all, and it's liberating. But then life gets in the way and things seem more complicated than they really are, and I forget to focus on what's really important. Hopefully this activity showed the kids the importance of sticking to the gospel and not being tempted away.
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