Scout Campout

I am one of three 11 year old scout leaders. It has been a blast of a calling. We have a pretty decent sized troop, as we are a combination of two wards. The boys are a great group of boys. They are as well behaved as a group a boys their age can be, and do a decent job of listening to the short lessons we have each week.

Over the course of the past year, we have gone on two camp outs. For whatever reason, each time we have a trip planned, I am the only leader available to go. The first time, it was in the middle of November, we were hoping for some decent weather, and instead got a huge snow storm. Huge may be a bit of an exaggeration, but snow fell the day we went up. Thankfully, I had a father go with us, and nobody froze. We just went up to a camp ground real close to town, called Bowl and Pitcher. Did the usual camp out stuff, and in the morning played a wicked game of capture the flag. It was a lot of fun.

Last night, one of the other leaders changed his mind at the last minute and was able to go. It was a huge multi stake event, and it was well done. We had a program last night with a fire juggler, and then today there were a bunch of different stations for the boys to go around to in order to meet requirements. The fire juggler was super talented, not only did he juggle fire, he also sang camp songs, and gave a short message. He shared a couple of great stories, the one I liked the best was about while he was in film school up in Toronto. He mentioned the school being quite in tune with the Hollywood culture, and how it wasn't easy living the standards he wanted to, in particular, avoiding unwholesome media, as during classes they would "study" films that often depicted things he wanted to avoid seeing.

He was a gunner of a student, and would always sit in the front row, and had a friend who would let him know if there was anything that he wouldn't want to see in a clip during class who sat on the back row. Everytime the teacher would line up a new clip, he would turn around and his friend would either shake his head (telling him to leave the room), or nod, indicating he could stay. Eventually, the entire class would nod or shake their head when he turned around, and by the end of his training, the teacher would just say "John Doe, you might want to step outside for the next 10 minutes." There were a few faculty who were resistant to his belief system, but the majority respected him. I was most definitely impressed with his example.

The food as usual was delicious. We do food right in our troop. Other troops had microwaveable burritos, wrapped in tin foil, thrown on the fire. We had hashbrowns, ground beef, seasoning, carrots, peas, and green beans in ours. Then for breakfast we made some killer breakfast burritos, although we forgot to bring the salsa. So much for the motto to "Be Prepared." All in all, it was a great night. I slept in my usual place, the back of the van, on a nice cushion. It was fantastic. As great as it was, I can't wait for the times when I get to head out on campouts with Jordan and Bubba. Although, when they are old enough, I'm going to have to give up my van bed for a tent.