Monday: Out of the 61 troops up here, 58 are LDS and so yesterday's fast and testimony meeting was very well attended (400 +). It was a chapel directly from the early days of the church: Tall ponderosa's, half-sawn logs for benches, the sun playing hide and seek through the trees, birds chirping, the breeze rustling through the trees.... Of course sitting in the back you quickly miss electronics connecting a microphone and speakers. But even if you couldn't hear most of the testimonies, you could feel the spirit. When we got back to camp we had our own meeting with the Crystal Shores Ward (they have nine boys added to our three sharing the campsite). We had our own testimony meeting and everyone bore their testimony, including Daenon. This was definitely a first, and he was articulate, composed, and sincere. His testimony may be simple, but it's definitely strong and clear. My testimony was acknowledgement at of the billions of people to walk the earth without really understanding "the point" of this existence, and how fortunate we are to be part of such a privileged miniscule percentage to have so much truth to shed light on the most important questions in life.
Sunday pretty much ended after lunch, Daenon shot 22's, did archery, and we played "pirate dice" (the game from Pirates of the Caribbean). I listened to a lot of Dennis Prager and pondered. After dinner last night we waited for a little over an hour for the fireside/opening ceremonies to start. The last fifteen minutes Daenon's patience was spent and he just wanted to go back to the campsite. I gently said "no" a dozen times since he wouldn't leave it alone. He LOVED it. It was high energy, the skits were the best I've seen, and the songs were hilarious, One of the "skits" was a different variation of The King, The Queen, and The Gate." I think he'll have a lot of new material to share with other people.
Daenon, Andrew and Steven (other boys from our ward who are at the camp) shower every night. They didn't get to bed until 11:30 last night and we had them up at 5 am this morning in order to have the campsite completely ready for inspection and to the flag raising at 6:30 am. The level of detail for the inspection is extensive, and the boys were working solid for an hour. Our troop was responsible for the flag raising. Daenon raised the flag for his part and I'm still amazed at how grown up he is in front of large groups. He is so in his element here. I guess I am too even though I'm not really a camper. Every morning and every evening I marvel at the American Flag being raised and lowered, the Pledge of Allegiance repeated with everyone in uniform with a proper solute, a second flag raised that represents a significant part of our founding history, a patriotic song sung by all, and a prayer said. God and our founding American values have been so extensively silenced in our society, it feels strange to be figuratively so far removed from the masses in order to feel safe honoring goodness; and requiring young men to work hard and show discipline along with having some fun. It's interesting to realize that without the LDS church's support of scouting, the Boys Scouts of America would fade into oblivion. The fight for anything good is intense.
Daenon just came by after his lifesaving class. The pools not heated, and I was curious how he would handle the cold water. He casually said his heart rate didn't even increase and he was fine. They do a polar bear swim Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 5:30 am. I think he plans to do it each day. He's off to his archery class.
Wednesday: Three times yesterday Daenon says he wants to come back next summer to Geronimo as staff. He loves this place!! They let 14 and 15 year olds work for Trading Post credits ($25/week), and then when they're 16 they get $125 a week of real dollars. For Daenon, it's not about the money. I'm sure there are some great camps in Texas. It's so nice to see him taking all the initiative necessary to do the merit badge homework and follow-up to get his badges. I don't have to say anything. I think they purposely require outside class work to weed out those boys who are earning the badges from those who just want to show up and get handed the badges. Last night they held elections for Order of the Arrow. Tonight we have a general assembly and Daenon is really hoping he's elected. He asked a lot of clarifying questions to determine if he met the eligibility requirements The ordeal is done later in the summer, and he can do it in Texas if he's elected here. I'll explain the details of the process later. The ordeal consists of maintaining a code of complete silence from evening until the next afternoon, sleeping "completely" by yourself in the woods with only your sleeping bag, fasting breakfast, and doing hard labor in a service project during the day. If you pass the ordeal, you become a member of the Order of the Arrow.
Breakfast was awesome this morning: cubed potatoes with salsa, strawberries and pineapple, cream of wheat with honey and raisins, and orange juice. Daenon and I are scheduled to do archery all afternoon. He's excited about it and so am I. I'm sure he's going to want to get his own bow and arrows, and set up a target range.
This brings back memories from good 'ol Camp Oljato!
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