Dear Friends:
At the beginning of July, my family and I traveled all the way to Cimarron, New Mexico to attend a Priesthood Leadership Conference on Scouting. The entire conference took place at the famous Philmont Scout Ranch. To say that this was a life-changing experience would actually be an understatement.
I've been dreaming about this trip for a long, long time. You see, Philmont is revered in the Scouting community as an incredible destination. Each year, thousands of Scouts go on 12-day mountain treks into the mountains that test their mettle. My trip wasn't a mountain trek, but rather, a week of formal training by LDS Church leaders on the Aaronic Priesthood and Scouting. Only Stake leaders are invited to attend. I have SO MUCH to tell, and I'm not sure I'll ever really be able to convey what an incredible experience it was.
First, this wasn't just about me. Our Church is quite serious about a focus on family. While they want me to receive training, they don't want to pull me away from my family for a whole week. They actually invite the entire family to attend Philmont. For this reason, my amazing wife spent all night making a family banner that we would use throughout the week:
We left some room to include the older children, should they want to join in ; )
It showed everyone's interests in the form of Boy Scout merit badges ; ) I had to make up some imaginary badges for the kids - but wouldn't it be cool to earn the superhero merit badge?!?
We piled into the car and headed off to New Mexico. Since we live in Austin, the trip to even get outside Texas is a long journey. It did help to have amazing views like this one:
The first day, we drove all the way to Clovis, New Mexico...which is just barely across the border between the two states. We stayed in a lovely hotel - which just happened to be located across the street from a railroad crossing. Every hour during the night, we got to hear the blaring horns of the numerous trains passing through. Our first clue should have been the ear plugs that we found in the bathroom. Lesson learned. Behind the hotel was a giant, open field. I played with the kids for a while before getting back into the car for another day of driving:
Since my wife spent an entire night making our family banner, I did all of the driving. There's not a lot in Western Texas. Every once-in-a-while, we would see huge farms of windmills, capturing the wind to produce electricity for the region. These things were HUGE:
After two days on the road, we finally arrived at the Philmont Training Center, located within the 300,000+ acres of the Scout Ranch:
The facility was absolutely gorgeous, with large open lawns throughout the area where my family would spend the next week:
Brother David L. Beck, Young Men General President, presided at the conference, under the direction of President Thomas S. Monson. Faculty included the entire Primary and Young Men general presidencies, along with several board members and Church service missionaries (some of the nicest people you'll ever meet).
Once we checked-in, we were assigned our lodging for the week. We all "camped" in large canvas tents, organized into tent cities:
We had two tents for the the four of us - so we put the boys in one tent and the girls in the other:
Each tent city had its own playground, which was about 15 yards from our tents. The kids spent a great deal of time here, which was nice:
The amazing thing was the feeling of peace and safety that we had the whole week. We never worried about where our kids were - the 200 families all looked out for each other. It was such a refreshing experience.
That evening (Saturday), we all gathered in an outdoor theater and listened to the staff and leaders tell us a little about the week. We were a little nervous, because my wife was called to be the Philmont Choir Director for the week. Anyone who knows my wife, understands why they asked her to do this. But we just weren't sure if people would show up to 6:30am rehearsals. In fact, the first rehearsal was the very next morning - and the choir was to perform in church services later that morning!! At this Saturday-night program, they asked everyone who liked to sing, to stand up. They then said "Congratulations! You're now part of the choir - practice is at 6:30am!" Lots of laughing ; )
My wife and I arose quite early Sunday morning - I wanted to be there to give her at least another male voice - and when we walked in...we had over 80 people show up. Amazing! It really speaks to the caliber of people there in attendance. When they are asked to show up at 6:30am - they do it. To top it off...the quality of the voices was also amazing. We basically sight-read the songs and it sounded quite good. I think I am now spoiled when it comes to church choirs ; )
This picture is from later in the week, not that Sunday morning
But, I have to say that my wife was such a delight - not just for me (no surprise), but so many people approached her during the entire week and thanked her for a great choir experience. I was so proud!!
Due to the size of the group, we split everyone into quorums and classes for church that day. We all managed to meet outside. Here are a few of the Sunday School classes, meeting on the central lawn:
Church was just the best spiritual starting point for the entire week. President Beck held a fireside for the youth that night, and one of his counselors - President Gibson - conducted a fireside for adults. I took several pages of notes ; )
Monday was the formal start of classes. Each morning, my family got up around 5:30am to get ready for choir practice and then had breakfast. We finished each morning with a wonderful flag-raising ceremony. They invited Cub and Boy Scouts to participate. The pride on the young men's faces each day was great to watch:
I mistakingly chose a cloudy day to photograph all four flags
A little note about the next picture - I wasn't posing for this - the camp photographer captured me at the right moment. L apparently was looking at him while I was at attention ; )
While the men are in classes each day, the rest of the family have a ton of fun activities that they get to do. Kids participate in age-group activities during the day. The wives participate in their own training, as well as hiking, crafts and other tours. All of us gather together as families in the cafeteria, to eat meals. In addition, there is dedicated family time so that we can hike or just spend time together.
G-Man was part of the Cowpoke group. He quickly (and I'm talking minutes) became "best friends" with several boys in his group:
During the week, he rode ponies, hiked up a mountain to a real T-Rex print and played a lot of fun games. L also road ponies (it took two opportunities to make it happen), went to a petting zoo and held baby chicks, watched movies and played all day.
I spent time in classes. They divided all of the men into three large groups, and we stayed together for most of the week:
I'm on the back row, just left of middle...if you squint really hard...
We were given brief cases and a wealth of materials to use and study during the week. There were also online resources that I'm just now starting to download:
In each class, we followed the teaching method that we use for our young men in the Duty to God program: Learn...Act...Share. This was used effectively in every meeting we attended. Here, I'm sharing with the good gentlemen sitting next to me.
Some meetings were spent all together, listening to President Beck and Sister Wixom (Primary General President) share insights and inspired teaching:
Here, we're given a few minutes to reflect on what we learned in that particular segment. I have to tell you - the thoughts and ideas that came to me during these times of reflection were surprising to me. I firmly believe that I had the constant companionship of the Spirit during the entire week. It's as close to being a full-time missionary that I can possible imagine. The words and ideas just flowed from me onto paper and into my laptop the entire week:
As I mentioned, I was taught by some incredible leaders. Sister Wixom helped us understand the purpose of the Cub Scout program, and how closely it was tied to not only our Primary program, but as a solid foundation for boys to prepare to become Aaronic Priesthood holders. I found myself not knowing a great deal about Cubs, since that's not an official part of my stewardship. After this instruction, that will definitely change:
I could go on and on about the quality of the teaching, the amazing men and women that sacrificed their time to teach and lead us, and the quality of the personal revelation that I received that week. I have a LOT of notes...it's taking me a couple of weeks to sort through everything ; )
This will conclude my first post on this amazing experience. Join me for the next post, where you'll learn about my performance in front of the entire Philmont conference ; )
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