Teacher/Priest Camp

I always dread this time of year because of all the camps and youth conferences. They seem to eat up all of my vacation time (or I feel guilty about not going) and in some ways, I resent it. But usually, after the camps are over, I can see that it really wasn't as bad as I had anticipated it to be, and they are good to bring the kids together so they can support each other. Occasionally, there is even a spiritual experience mixed in. Our ward usually combines the Teacher and Priest quorum camps and just do a single camp together. (For which I am glad because I don't have the slightest idea about how to plan one of these things [where to go, what to do, etc.]--give me a specific assignment and I can do it great, but I'm just not a big-idea-for-the-outdoors kind of person.)

A member of our ward is the director of the Air Force museum at the base near us, and he called in some favors and arranged for the boys to spend a day at the base. We watched an awards ceremony, and then were escorted to the live artillery arms training grounds where we were trained with special forces soldiers in urban combat training. They had a building that was supposed to simulate a building in Baghdad and they taught us how to approach a hostile building and then enter and "clear" the room. After training us, they gave the boys paintball guns and the special forces soldiers were hiding in the building and the boys went in groups of 4 to clear them out. (I didn't do the actual paintball part because the helmets didn't cover the top of the head and could have been a problem with my shunt--see the war wounds pictures below.) The adrenaline when the door was kicked in and they entered was amazing. There was an intense barrage of paintball fire. The fighting usually lasted for about 2 minutes and then the boys came out with their war wounds.

Daniel in training for approaching a hostile building in the 4-man formation:

From Teacher-Pries...

Paintball wounds after the battle (and this was through several layers of clothing.)

From Teacher-Pries...

The boys absolutely loved this! I'm still searching for a priesthood principle that this taught, but I don't think they were too concerned about that. After we finished at the live artillery training, we attended a briefing with the Colonel of the 381st fighter wing and then his assistant took us out to the "fly line" (the runway) to see the F-16's and the jets taking off. It was very interesting.

We then drove up to Pine View Dam and spent two days water-skiing, knee boarding, tubing, and canoeing at Causey Dam. Daniel's quorum was in charge of the evening devotional and they prepared it by comparing the 2,000 stripling warriors and their teamwork and what they had to do with the paintball training. It was actually very spiritual and they did a great job.

I had to come home a night early because in April, I bought tickets to the Kansas concert for Becky's birthday before this trip was even planned. (Of course, I didn't mind leaving early either). We had a great time and Kansas was great. My favorite songs were "Point of Know Return" and "Carry on Wayward Son" and the violinist was amazing! Becky even knew all of the band members names---now that's a fan! (She even swayed her cell phone a couple of times!) Her biggest complaint: All the old people (our age?) seldom stood up and when they did, they didn't stay up for long and didn't "groove" to the music. (At things like this, I always think of my Grandpa Jack as I watched them from across the arena at a Weber State basketball game: Grandma Kate was always jumping up and down and clapping and cheering, and he just stood there with his arms folded quietly enjoying the spectacle.) I'm an "arms folder" and and I'm not very demonstrative in my movement, but I still very much enjoyed the concert.